There are more than 200,000 dentists in the U.S., a number that has consistently increased for more than two decades before stabilizing in recent years. According to the American Dental Association , the U.S. dentist workforce is growing, becoming younger and more female — though it is not growing in all geographic areas.

A gap in the supply of dentists in urban counties versus rural counties has been increasing over time and may continue to do so. Younger dentists are less likely to practice in rural areas, the ADA said in a 2025 analysis of the current dental workforce.

While the overall dentist-to-100,000 population ratio in the U.S. is 59.5 in 2024, these ratios varied by state, from a low of 40.2 in Arkansas to a high of 78.36 in Alaska. Louisiana had the seventh-lo

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