Key takeaways
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Dentistry is a well-paying career, but it generally isn’t the highest paid in the medical field.
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Consider shadowing a dentist and auditing university classes to gauge if a career in dentistry is right for you.
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Dentists who work in the public sector may qualify for loan forgiveness programs.
Dentistry is a lucrative career, but you probably won’t earn the highest-level dentistry pay right out of school. A few different factors affect how much dentists make a year, including experience level, location, specialty and employment sector.
If you’re thinking about a career in this high-paying field, here’s what to know about the starting salaries for dentists, incomes for various specialties and whether the pay is worth dental school debt.
Annual dentist salary
The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that the annual national dentist salary is $170,910. Dentists working at private practices can earn even more. The American Dental Association (ADA) found that the average net income in 2023 was $191,750 for general dentists and $323,780 for specialists.
You may be wondering what dentists do to get such a high salary. General dentists focus on oral care while teaching patients how to optimize their dental care routine. Dentists can also work as specialists, focusing on areas such as anesthesiology, endodontics, oral and maxillofacial radiology and surgery, orthodontics and oral pathology.
What determines a dentist’s salary?
The typical income in this line of work depends on several factors. Below are a few that can affect dentistry pay.
Location
The city and state where you practice have a significant effect on how much you’ll earn as a dentist. For example, according to state-level data from BLS, the mean general dentist salary in Illinois is $165,760, while Wyoming- and Vermont-based dentists earn $188,280 and $260,380, respectively.
Even wages between different areas in the same state can vary considerably. For example, in California, general dentists in the San Francisco metropolitan area earn a mean wage of $256,070 per year, while Los Angeles dentists earn a mean wage of $165,040.
The following tables show top-tier, mid-tier and lower-tier salaries by state, respectively:
| State | Annual mean wage |
|---|---|
| Vermont | $260,380 |
| Maryland | $234,670 |
| Arizona | $231,890 |
| Delaware | $227,200 |
| Texas | $220,000 |
| State | Annual mean wage |
|---|---|
| Montana | $204,410 |
| Alaska | $201,720 |
| Indiana | $200,000 |
| Michigan | $198,440 |
| New Hampshire | $197,450 |
| State | Annual mean wage |
|---|---|
| Mississippi | $130,550 |
| Utah | $139,970 |
| South Dakota | $142,830 |
| Nevada | $144,420 |
| Colorado | $149,810 |
Dental specialty
Dental specialties require two to six years of additional residency training. The ADA recognizes 12 dental specialties, all of which have higher salary potential than a career as a general dentist. Specialists stand to earn among the top dental incomes, but this requires more years of education and potentially more student loan debt to complete training in an accredited program.