From dental practitioner salaries to the percentage of dentists who own practices, here are 10 notable statistics about the dental industry Becker's reported on this year:  

New Jersey saw the largest decrease in dental assistant salaries between 2020 and 2021, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

West Virginia saw the largest increase in dental assistant salaries between 2020 and 2021, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Ten states saw a decrease in dental hygienist pay between 2020 and 2021, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Wyoming saw the largest increase in dental hygienist pay between 2020 and 2021, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Idaho saw the largest decrease in annual dentist pay between 2020 and 2021, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

California has the most practicing dentists and physicians in the U.S.

New Mexico saw the largest increase in annual dentist salary from 2020 to 2021, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The number of dental school graduates has increased by 30.5 percent since 2011, according to data from the American Dental Association. 

New York University in New York City has the highest number of graduates of any dental school in the U.S., according to data from the American Dental Association.

New York University College of Dentistry in New York City had the highest enrollment of all 68 U.S. dental schools during the 2021-22 academic year, according to data from the American Dental Association.

The number of first-year dental school students has increased by 11.6 percent over the last 10 years, according to data from the American Dental Association. 

The average dental school graduate in 2019 owed $292,169 in student loan debt, according to the most recent data from the Education Data Initiative, a resource that collects data and statistics about the U.S. education system.

The U.S. spent $142.4 billion on dental care in 2020 and $4.12. trillion on overall healthcare, according to data from the American Dental Association and the American Medical Association.

The average cost of Invisalign is between $4,000 and $7,000, according to healthcare financing company Carecredit.

The average cost of a teeth cleaning is between $75 and $200, according to healthcare financing company CareCredit.

Delaware is the second worst state to start a business, according to data from personal finance website WalletHub, but is the highest-paying state for dentists overall.

Dentists make an average of $165,950 per year in California, the state with the most dental provider shortage areas in the U.S.

California has the most pediatric dentists than any other state in the U.S., while Vermont has the fewest, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. 

California has the most endodontists of any state in the U.S., while Wyoming has the fewest, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.