The U.S. dentist workforce is growing and overall becoming younger, more female and more racially and ethnically diverse, according to data from the American Dental Association.
Here are 15 things to know about the U.S. dentist workforce from the ADA’s Health Policy Institute, which is based on data from multiple sources as of August 2025:
- There has been consistent growth in the U.S. dentist workforce, and are more than 202,000 dentists in the U.S.
- About 80% of dentists in the U.S. are general practitioners, with more than 159,000 general dentists.
- Pediatric dentistry has seen the largest increase in the number of specialists since 2001.
- Orthodontics is the most prevalent specialty in the U.S., with about 5% of dentists being orthodontists.
- Overall, the dentist workforce is getting younger, driven by more dental school graduates joining the workforce each year and the large number of dentists over 60 who have left the field since 2017.
- In 2024, more than 38% of U.S. dentists were female, more than doubling since 2001.
- More than half of female dentists are under the age of 45, compared to about 35% of male dentists.
- About 40% of female dentists in the U.S. are general dentists.
- Female dentists make up the majority of pediatric dentists.
- Oral and maxillofacial surgery is the specialty most represented by male dentists.
- There is a greater proportion of white and Asian dentists compared to the overall U.S. population.
- Black and Hispanic dentists are still underrepresented compared to the U.S. population.
- There are 59.5 dentists for every 100,000 people, slightly down from the peak of 61.1 dentists per 100,000 residents in 2017.
- The dentist to population ratio is much higher in urban areas than rural. In urban areas, there are 64.7 dentists for 100,000 people compared to 32.7 dentists per 100,000 people in rural areas.
- Between 2014 and 2024, North Carolina experienced the largest increase in dentists per 100,000 people and Pennsylvania had the largest decrease.
