Dentists earnings and busyness

The latest Survey of Dental Practice report, published by the ADA Health Policy Institute in May 2024, breaks down dentist annual income, dental practice gross billings per dentist and expenses per dentist, patient wait times, and patient visits by general practitioners and specialists.  

Related materials:

• Income, gross billings, expenses, characteristics – 2023 results – Survey of Dental Practice report (XLSX)
• Update on Net Income of General Practitioner Dentists – 2023 data – key messages slides (PDF)
  

In 2023, according to ADA data, general practice dentists in private practice earned an annual average of $218,710.  While the long-term trend shows a slight decline over the last decade, ADA data show no statistically significant change in 2023 compared to 2022. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show a slight increase in the last year. (Note:  ADA data on income include more types of dentist compensation than BLS data. See methods in full reports linked above.)

Over the past three years, more than one-third of GP dentists report they are too busy to treat all patients requesting care or are overworked. For much of the pre-pandemic era, around one-quarter or less of GP dentists reported they were overworked.