How Much Do US Dentists Earn? The Annual Report From DentistryIQ: Part 1

DentistryIQ – one of the top-world media outlets in the dental industry – published a comprehensive survey among US dentists, identifying crucial trends in clinicians' salaries, work processes, and other vital changes in this area of medicine.

Even though the last studies from Harvard University demonstrate notable issues with the availability of dental services in the country, the survey indicates that the industry constantly evolves to provide better work conditions for specialists.

The formula is simple: the more attractive the industry becomes for clinicians, the more talented staff will join it.

Money questions – full-time workers

The survey contains four main categories of dental specialists: dentists who own the practice, general dentists, registered dental hygienists (RDH), and dental assistants. The average annual income of the first two groups (who worked full time) grew by 6.7% in 2024 and 3.7% compared to 2023:

Dental practice owners – from $300.273 to $320.316
Dentists – from $217.867 to $225.929

Full-time RDH category demonstrated more mild growth – just by 2.9% – from $79.340 to $81.267; still, it's important to note that in the previous survey, which analyzed data from 2022, RDH's income bumped by 10% compared to 2024 – probably, one the most rapid growth rate.

Dental assistants' income, in turn, increased by 7.1% – from $44.295 to $47.440 in 2024.

Working hours and benefits

Generally, information from the research demonstrates that work conditions become more and more favorable.

Thus, 78% of dental practitioners reported receiving benefits (medical, retirement, paid education, etc.) in private facilities, compared to 60.6% in the previous year. Also, the number of dentists who did not receive any benefits decreased almost twice – from 39.4% to 18% in 2024. Also, dentists had more work hours this year: 81% of specialists reported working 32 or more hours per week, 5% more than last year.

Regarding RDH specialists, 61% of respondents worked 32 to 40 hours per week, and 39% worked less than 32 hours. According to statistics, more practitioners in this category received benefits – 92.6% of respondents, compared to 89% in 2023 (in 2022, this indicator was about 70%).

Dental assistants did not show a significant shift in working hours this year – 82.3% work more than 32 hours per week, and 10.7% work more than 40 hours per week (this indicator raised from 6.5% last year). The amount of benefits also remained almost the same – 88.5% this year compared to 89% in 2023.

Conclusion

This annual report demonstrates the stable growth of the dental industry and the enhancement of clinicians' work conditions. Dental hygienists showed the most notable improvements in the last three years, which may be explained by increased human awareness of the importance of oral cavity hygiene, as it is a crucial risk factor for tooth cavities and gum inflammation.

In the next part of the review, we will describe dental workers' satisfaction levels and the tendencies that sometimes force them to change their workplaces. For now, you can take a look at other articles regarding work and education in dentistry:

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