The number of dental assisting graduates dropped 18.7 percent over five years, according to the American Dental Association's "Dental Education Program Enrollment and Graduates Report: 2021-22."
Data for the report was collected using a fall 2021 survey conducted by the ADA Health Policy Institute. The survey was sent to all 68 accredited dental school programs in the U.S. All dental education programs accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation are required to complete the surveys annually to maintain CODA accreditation.
Here are the number of graduates from accredited allied dental education programs from 2017 to 2021, per program type:
Dental hygiene
2017: 7,294
2018: 7,377
2019: 7,311
2020: 7,002
2021: 7,325
Five-year change: 0.4 percent
Dental assisting
2017: 4,852
2018: 4,688
2019: 4,517
2020: 4,003
2021: 3,943
Five-year change: -18.7 percent
Dental laboratory technology
2017: 225
2018: 211
2019: 197
2020: 188
2021: 164
Five-year change: -27.1 percent