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Pay · 29-1021

Dentists earn $170,950 a year at the midpoint

Where you land matters more here than in most jobs — the top tenth earn more than 3.7 times the bottom tenth. The midpoint is $170,950.

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$170,950median a year · United States
$82.19an hour $191,350average 124,390people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$125,71025th $170,950median $224,04075th
$86,25010th percentile $319,63090th percentile
$125,710a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$230,990best-paying state · Alaska
$123,830lowest-paying state · Wyoming
+35%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

Among the best-paidNumber 12 of 788 occupations by median pay — in the top five per cent.
State matters a lotThe same job pays $230,990 in Alaska and $123,830 in Wyoming — a gap of $107,160 a year.

Dentist earnings, from starting pay to the best-paid 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

Experience
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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Dentist pay rate, from hourly to yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$170,955a year

Examples

Resumes written for this line of work.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

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Resumes for dentists

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

Patterson Dental Supply Patterson EagleSofteClinicalWorks EHR softwareHenry Schein DentrixPractice management software PMSOpen DentalDental charting softwareDental clinical records softwareDental digital radiology software
  • Used masks, gloves, and safety glasses to protect patients and self from infectious diseases.
  • Administered anesthetics to limit the amount of pain experienced by patients during procedures.
  • Examined teeth, gums, and related tissues, using dental instruments, x-rays, or other diagnostic equipment, to evaluate dental health, diagnose diseases or abnormalities, and plan appropriate treatments.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Number 12 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 98% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 10 Physicists $172,250
  2. 11 Architectural and Engineering Managers $171,270
  3. 12 Dentists $170,950
  4. 13 Natural Sciences Managers $167,220
  5. 14 Marketing managers $166,790

Nearby work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Dentists$170,950
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons$352,220+$181,270 Orthodontists$289,140+$118,190 Dentists, All Other Specialists$224,990+$54,040

Dentist wages, state by state

The 46 states where the most people do this work, of 47 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.86 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Alaska $230,990 $124,200 $124,200 — $320,440 310
North Dakota $220,660 $138,570 $138,570 — $308,040 260
Minnesota $219,200 $132,930 $132,930 — $226,940 2,370
Tennessee $215,290 $84,360 $84,360 — $311,900 2,200
Oregon $211,690 $143,990 $143,990 — $353,310 1,660
Maine $209,200 $152,740 $152,740 — $385,460 310
North Carolina $207,000 $107,810 $107,810 — $337,630 4,140
Georgia $206,760 $93,590 $93,590 — $373,420 2,620
Missouri $204,960 $95,610 $95,610 — $427,970 2,440
Vermont $204,960 $112,490 $112,490 — $326,360 240
Virginia $197,110 $105,400 $105,400 — $321,250 4,140
Arizona $194,180 $62,230 $62,230 — $336,320 3,470
Wisconsin $193,690 $121,780 $121,780 — $306,370 2,560
New York $183,060 $75,410 $75,410 — $375,740 7,340
Massachusetts $181,600 $101,470 $101,470 — $417,670 2,780
Iowa $181,520 $100,920 $100,920 — $259,990 1,240
Nebraska $179,750 $68,040 $68,040 — $265,940 790
Arkansas $178,930 $99,010 $99,010 — $223,010 1,210
New Hampshire $177,480 $99,780 $99,780 — $341,950 500
Florida $174,900 $98,680 $98,680 — $314,860 9,320
New Jersey $171,330 $77,920 $77,920 — $349,780 2,980
Louisiana $170,750 $80,530 $80,530 — $309,360 1,500
West Virginia $170,370 $96,270 $96,270 — $362,930 420
Michigan $169,930 $109,960 $109,960 — $303,980 3,620
Washington $169,730 $85,240 $85,240 — $346,840 3,240
Maryland $168,500 $107,880 $107,880 — $254,820 2,100
Hawaii $167,820 $83,310 $83,310 — $416,000 830
Ohio $167,410 $64,910 $64,910 — $316,970 2,790
Montana $167,200 $63,710 $63,710 — $230,580 380
Indiana $166,650 $81,370 $81,370 — $327,980 2,300
Colorado $166,240 $84,590 $84,590 — $229,070 2,940
Oklahoma $166,170 $97,290 $97,290 — $346,890 980
California $165,950 $74,510 $74,510 — $272,730 16,770
Pennsylvania $163,390 $65,520 $65,520 — $316,950 4,460
Texas $162,360 $83,990 $83,990 — $308,220 8,920
Nevada $162,200 $99,600 $99,600 — $262,350 1,100
Rhode Island $161,560 $103,490 $103,490 — $240,650 360
Connecticut $160,440 $89,430 $89,430 — $362,870 1,950
South Carolina $158,640 $96,920 $96,920 — $310,840 2,140
South Dakota $158,140 $94,560 $94,560 — $250,780 390
Illinois $156,110 $123,920 $123,920 — $291,530 6,940
New Mexico $155,260 $101,180 $101,180 — $306,320 780
Mississippi $143,660 $59,700 $59,700 — $240,450 740
Kentucky $134,160 $44,820 $44,820 — $344,040 790
Utah $133,320 $84,020 $84,020 — $222,820 1,020
Idaho $124,190 $91,070 $91,070 — $203,610 650

No estimate is published for 2 states: the survey withholds a figure when too few employers report it. Nothing has been filled in for them.

Questions people often ask

What is a dentist’s yearly income?

A dentist makes a median of $170,950 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $125,710 and $224,040.

What is a dentist’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $82.19 an hour; the average is $191,350 a year.

What is the starting pay for a dentist?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $125,710 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $86,250.

Which state pays dentists the most?

Alaska, with a median of $230,990 a year.

How many people work as dentists?

About 124,390 in the United States — number 12 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays roughly the same

Median pay within $3,730 of what dentists earn — $170,950 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations