The main driving force behind dentists’ confidence in the U.S. economy is faith in current leadership, according to new data from the American Dental Association.
The ADA released its “Economic Outlook and Emerging Issues in Dentistry” report for the fourth quarter of 2025, highlighting key trends and statistics on the workforce, practice operations and financial performance.
Overall, the report shows dentists’ confidence in the U.S. economy and the dental care sector during the fourth quarter of 2025 is much lower compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. To see how data compares to 2024, click here.
Here is how dentists responded when surveyed about their confidence levels for the economy over the next six months:
Their particular dental practice
Very confident: 18.4%
Somewhat confident: 35%
Neither confident nor skeptical: 20%
Somewhat skeptical: 20.6%
Very skeptical: 6%
The dental care sector in general
Very confident: 8.7%
Somewhat confident: 32.4%
Neither confident nor skeptical: 27.4%
Somewhat skeptical: 23.8%
Very skeptical: 7.8%
The U.S. economy overall
Very confident: 8.5%
Somewhat confident: 24.2%
Neither confident nor skeptical: 19.5%
Somewhat skeptical: 30.7%
Very skeptical: 17.2%
Here are the reasons 257 dentists gave for their confidence in overall U.S. economic conditions:
Faith in the current U.S. leadership: 58%
Key indicators like inflation, consumer confidence, interest rates, are stable or improving: 52.1%
The U.S. economy is always resilient: 51.8%
Current trade, tariff and tax policies will maintain the strength of the U.S. economy: 40.5%
No specific reason / generally optimistic: 16%
Other: 4.7%
