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Benchmarking

Dental hygienists have an average annual salary of $89,890, compared to $128,490 for nurse practitioners, $130,490 for physician assistants and $214,200 for nurse anesthetists, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The highest-paying metropolitan area for dental assistants is the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., region, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Dentists earn about $125.18 per hour in Vermont, the state with the highest average hourly wage for dentists, compared to the state's minimum wage of $13.67.

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