Whakawhiwhinga
Dentist licence (DDS/DMD)
The most expensive credential on this site — a quarter of a million dollars in federal loans at the median — leading to one of the best-paid occupations in the country.
Ko te utu hei whiwhi — te haurua o te awhe.
Mō ngā marama o te whakaakoranga, i te wā katoa. Ka roa ake te wā wātea.
Ko ngā marama o te utu utu e hiahiatia ana hei whakawhāiti i taua utu. Kāore i te marama tae noa ki te wā e haere ana koe i mua i te katoa - ka tae mai te wā whakaakoranga i runga ake nei i te tuatahi.
Ka taea te whakataki te pūtake: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 · kitenga
He aha taua taupū utu, he aha kāore i te mea.
The highest figures on this site, and still only the borrowed part. That range is median cumulative FEDERAL LOAN DEBT at completion, not a tuition sticker price and not total cost. It is what completers actually borrowed, so it excludes grants, savings, family money, employer funding and living costs — which makes it a FLOOR on what the credential costs, never a ceiling. The low and high figures are the 25th and 75th percentiles across the institutions that report a figure for this programme, so a quarter of institutions sit below the low end. College Scorecard pools two award years into each figure; the release used here is dated 10 June 2026.
Four years of dental school after a bachelor's degree, then a state or regional clinical licensing examination. Specialising adds two to six years of residency on top.
Licences renew every one to two years by state with continuing education requirements.
He tokomaha nga tāngata e pupuri ana i tēnei, he tokomaha hoki e mahi ana i roto i te āpure.
He maha nga tāngata e pupuri ana i tēnei
202,485 professionally active dentists in the United States — 2024, the last year in the ADA series, published 2025.
Kāore e tahuri ana tātau i taua ōrautanga. We hold a sound count of dentists and a sound count of employed dentists and we are not dividing one into the other, because federal employment data counts employees and most dentists are self-employed practice owners. The ratio would read as though a third of dentists were not working in dentistry, and what it would actually measure is how many of them own the practice rather than being paid by one. Ko ngā tatauranga e rua he mārama i a rātou anō, ā, ka whakaputaina ki runga ake, ki raro ake hoki. Ka whakaputaina e te wehenga he whika e ako ana hei "te wāhanga o ngā kaipupuri e mahi ana i te āpure" ā, kāore e kotahi, nō reira ka whakaputaina e tātau ngā tatauranga e rua, ā, ka noho rātau.
Ko te mea kei roto i taua tatau: People, from the ADA's masterfile, and already filtered to those whose primary occupation is dentistry — private practice, dental school faculty, armed forces and federal services, state and local government, hospital staff, residents and interns. It EXCLUDES retired dentists, dentists not in practice or waiting for boards, and anyone whose main job is something else. That filtering makes it a different kind of count from most on this site: it is closer to a workforce than to a registry, which is exactly why we do not divide employment into it.
The ADA count is also filtered differently from most credential registries on this site: it already excludes retired dentists and those not in practice, so it is closer to a workforce count than to a register of everyone who ever qualified. Two counts that are each right, measuring populations that do not line up, is precisely the case where publishing the pair and refusing the percentage is the honest answer.
American Dental Association Health Policy Institute, Supply of Dentists in the US: 2001–2024, Table 1 (Standing count of people holding the credential) · kitenga
He aha te take o nga tāngata i oti te whakaakoranga?
E whā tau i muri i te whakamututanga, mai i ngā pūkete ā-iwi
Ko te mea 7,918 ngā tāngata i oti Dentistry (DDS/DMD), first professional degree Kāore anō rātau kia ako i te whā tau i muri mai, 210 Kāore i whiwhi i te moni i runga i te pūkete — 2.7%. Ko ērā i mahi i whiwhi i tētahi tauwaenga o te 100. $170,812, me te haurua o waenganui i waenganui $110,187 me $239,976.
Kāore he "whakahaere i te pūkete" e kore ana e "kore mahi". Ko te inenga ko te korenga o tētahi pūkete utu me tētahi moni whiwhinga tōrunga mō te tau katoa. Kāore i pātaihia e tētahi mēnā e hiahiatia ana e rātou te mahi, nō reira ka pupuri te tatau i ngā tāngata i mahue te kaha mahi i te kōwhiringa - te whakawhanake i ngā tamariki, te tiaki, te haere, te noho i runga i te moni whiwhinga o tētahi atu tangata, te neke atu ki waho - i te taha o ia e hiahia ana ki tētahi mahi ā, kāore i te whai. Kāore e whakaputaina e tētahi te wehenga, ā, kāore e whakaaro ana tātau. Ko te mea e whakatau ana he maha ngā tāngata i oti tēnei whakaakoranga, ā, kāore i whiwhi i tētahi atu mea mai i a ia, mai i ētahi atu mea rānei i te whā tau, ko te mea e kore e taea e te tau o te utu ki runga te kī ki a koe.
Ko te mea e tautuhi ana te waehere papatono: CIP 51.04 at first-professional level is the DDS and DMD. It does not include dental hygiene or dental assisting, which are CIP 51.06 and appear separately. Specialty residencies taken after the degree are also outside it.
Ko wai i roto i te kohoro: Ko te nuinga o nga kaiako i whiwhi i te āwhina ā-iwi o te ākonga - tata ki te haurua o nga ākonga US, ā, kāore i te ine i tēnei wāhi. Ko ngā tāngata i haere ki te akoranga ā-whāiti, kāore i roto i te tīwae kotahi. Ko te Tari e whakakore ana i ngā whare wānanga me ngā rōpū iti rawa hei whakaputa, ā, ka tāpiri i te pōhēhētanga tatauranga ki te toenga, nō reira ko tēnei he taumaha i runga i ngā whare wānanga nui rawa ki te pūrongo: 53 o rātau, e whakaora ana 98.6% Ko te tatau ā-motu o te Tari mō tēnei papatono. Ka neke te mokatere o te whakawāteatanga o ngā papatono pūrongo iti rawa 0.0 Ko ngā pūwāhi ōrautanga.
Ka taea te whakataki te pūtake: US Department of Education, College Scorecard, Field of Study data, 2026 — release of 10 June 2026; measured four years after completion · kitenga · te taurite ōrite mō ia papatono ka taea e tātau te whakaputa
Ko te mea e whakaae ana ia kia mahia e koe
Ko te utu e pā ana ki te mahi, ehara i te tohu. Ko ēnei ngā mahi e whakaaetia ana e ia.
| He mahi | E hiahiatia ana? | Median | Ka mahi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dentists, General | Legally required to hold the job | $170,950 | 124,390 |
| Dentists, All Other Specialists | Legally required to hold the job | $224,990 | 5,230 |
| Orthodontists Requires the dental degree plus a two- to three-year orthodontic residency. |
A step towards it, not sufficient on its own | $289,140 | 6,210 |
| Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons Requires the dental degree plus a four- to six-year surgical residency. |
A step towards it, not sufficient on its own | $352,220 | 4,910 |
| Prosthodontists Requires the dental degree plus a three-year prosthodontic residency. |
A step towards it, not sufficient on its own | $311,180 | 870 |
Ko te utu me te mahi pāpāho: BLS Kaimahi me ngā Tatauranga Uara, Mei 2025.
E utu ana rātau mō rātau anō?
Ko te mahi e whakawātea ana tēnei e utu ana i tētahi tauwaenga o $170,950. Ko te pūtahi o te mahi-tō- $50,020, Nō reira ko te utu mo te pupuri i tēnei e tata ana ki $120,930 kotahi tau i mua i te tāke.
Ka pānui tēnei hei whakataurite ki tētahi mahi noa iho, ehara i te āhua o tōmu mahi. He aha taua raina taketake, me te mea e waiho ana i waho
Ka whakaaro hoki ka whiwhi i te mahi. Ko ia whika utu i tēnei pae e whakawhāiti ana ki te whakawhiwhinga ki te mahi. Ko te whakaaro tonu ko te tatau o te kaipupuri tohu i runga ake nei kia whakamātautia, ā, ko te whakaaro tonu e mahi ai ia atu pae utu.
Ko te mea e hiahiatia ana e koe i mua i te tīmatanga
- A bachelor's degree with science prerequisites
- The Dental Admission Test
- A place at a CODA-accredited dental school
- A clinical licensing examination
Kāore i te mahi tēnei mēnā
- you are not prepared for the largest debt on this site and the years of practice-building or buy-in that usually follow it
- you want to be an employee — most dentists own or buy into a practice, which is a second and separate capital requirement
- you cannot work with your hands at a millimetre of tolerance for eight hours a day
Ko ngā tohu katoa, e te wā whakawhiwhinga · He pēhea te tatau i tēnei · Ka rapu i tētahi atu mea