How many dentists graduate each year in the US

Graduates by year

The class grew by about 120 graduates a year over the last decade, from 5,811 in 2015 to 7,015 in 2025. The biggest jumps came in 2017, with 281 more graduates than the year before, and in 2020, with 259 more. The smallest was 2024, with three.

Source: ADA Health Policy Institute and CODA, Survey of Dental Education, Report 1, 2025-26 and 2020-21 editions. Graduates of CODA-accredited US schools, Puerto Rico included.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 4,800 openings for dentists a year from 2025 to 2035, most of them to replace dentists who retire or leave. The schools now graduate about 2,200 more dentists than that each year, which is one reason the number of dentists per person keeps rising. For the size of the profession, see how many dentists are in the US.

How many dental schools are in the US?

77 US dental schools held accreditation from the Commission on Dental Accreditation in fall 2025, up from 68 in 2021. Three of them are in Puerto Rico. The ADA's own summary page says 79, a figure that counts two schools abroad that CODA also accredits. Two more US programs won initial accreditation in 2026: Yeshiva University in New York in February and Larkin University in Florida in August.

Thirteen programs have been accredited since 2020. Their first classes add up to about 850 students. Most have not graduated anyone yet, so the yearly count should keep rising for several more years.

Source: CODA accreditation-action reports, 2020 to 2026; first-year enrollment from the Survey of Dental Education 2025-26, Table 8, or the school's own announcement for Pikeville, Yeshiva and Larkin.

Which states graduate the most dentists?

New York and California each graduated more than 760 dentists in 2025. New York University alone graduated 397, more than every state except the top four. The next largest classes were Tufts with 240, Boston University with 209, the University of Pennsylvania with 198 and the University of Southern California with 174.

Fourteen states had no dental school graduates in 2025: Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming. Arkansas now has a school, Lyon College, whose first class started in 2025. These counts are by where the school is, not where its graduates go on to practice; no national source tracks that.

Who the graduates are

56.4% of the class of 2025 were women, 3,954 of 7,015. In 2015 the share was 48.0%. The pipeline leans further: women are 59.5% of first-year dental students in 2025-26.

Getting in is about a coin flip. ADEA counted 13,657 applicants for the class that entered in 2025 and 7,073 first-time enrollees, the largest entering class since 2000. Across all four years, 28,925 students were enrolled in 2025-26, against 24,117 ten years earlier.

Where new dentists go

ADEA asks every graduating class about its plans. In 2025, 3,325 seniors answered. 50% planned to go straight into private practice, 37% into a residency or other advanced program, and 8% into government or nonprofit work, mostly community health centers.

Of the seniors headed to private practice, 77% expected to start as an associate, not an owner, and 32% planned to join a DSO, up from 28% in 2021. Half of 32% is 16%, so about one senior in six plans to start at a DSO. The share grows after school: the ADA finds that 26.5% of dentists ten or fewer years out of school work for a DSO.

They start with debt. The class of 2025 graduated with an average of $297,800 in education debt among those who had any, and 82% had some. These are stated plans from a survey, not a record of where graduates ended up.

For a vendor, the timing matters more than the head count. A new graduate rarely buys equipment or software. The buying starts when an associate becomes an owner or opens an office, usually years later. Our people file names 85,434 dentists, each tied to the practice where they work, so you can find the owners today.