How many dentists does America have, and where are they?
411,517 dental practices are registered across 52 states and territories, which is 119.9 for every 100,000 people. They are not spread evenly: the best served state has more than twice the dentists per head of the worst, and 1,122 American towns are more than twenty miles from the nearest one.
Counted from the federal NPI registry and Census population estimates. Free to quote and reuse with a link back.
Every state, colored by how well served it is
The registry says where every dentist is. Put that against how many people live there and the country stops looking evenly covered: the best served state has more than twice the dentists per head of the worst.
Hover a state for its numbers, click it to open its listings, scroll or pinch to zoom in on the north east. Alaska and Hawaii are drawn at the bottom left, as they are on most US maps. The smallest states in the north east are on the map and clickable, without a label printed over them.
The national picture
dentists per 100,000 people
miles from the middle of a typical town to the nearest dentist
of American towns have one within five miles
towns more than twenty miles from one
Put two states side by side
Pick any two. The numbers come from the table below, so nothing here is a different measurement of the same thing.
Every state, ranked
Sort by any column, or type to find a state. A low number does not mean a bad dentist. It means fewer of them for the people who live there, which shows up as a longer wait and a longer drive.
| District of Columbia | 189.7 | 1,332 | 702,250 | 4 | 18.1% | 45.1% |
| Massachusetts | 186.3 | 13,295 | 7,136,171 | 332 | 22.4% | 43.2% |
| Alaska | 168.1 | 1,244 | 740,133 | 62 | 12.5% | 27.5% |
| Colorado | 153.8 | 9,162 | 5,957,493 | 165 | 20.3% | 32.7% |
| California | 149.3 | 58,867 | 39,431,263 | 715 | 15.8% | 40.0% |
| Washington | 147.0 | 11,698 | 7,958,180 | 224 | 17.8% | 34.0% |
| Hawaii | 146.0 | 2,112 | 1,446,146 | 49 | 17.7% | 27.8% |
| New Hampshire | 140.3 | 1,977 | 1,409,032 | 106 | 20.3% | 36.6% |
| Connecticut | 139.7 | 5,133 | 3,675,069 | 164 | 21.8% | 34.0% |
| Illinois | 136.1 | 17,301 | 12,710,158 | 495 | 12.1% | 36.7% |
| Michigan | 134.4 | 13,626 | 10,140,459 | 458 | 12.4% | 35.1% |
| New Jersey | 133.0 | 12,635 | 9,500,851 | 444 | 20.5% | 37.0% |
| Maryland | 131.2 | 8,216 | 6,263,220 | 210 | 20.8% | 41.0% |
| Oregon | 131.2 | 5,604 | 4,272,371 | 149 | 16.5% | 30.1% |
| Minnesota | 125.9 | 7,293 | 5,793,151 | 332 | 16.9% | 35.6% |
| Virginia | 125.2 | 11,031 | 8,811,195 | 286 | 19.2% | 37.8% |
| New York | 122.9 | 24,422 | 19,867,248 | 608 | 21.1% | 36.1% |
| Vermont | 122.9 | 797 | 648,493 | 66 | 14.1% | 31.3% |
| Nebraska | 122.5 | 2,457 | 2,005,465 | 139 | 15.8% | 33.0% |
| Arizona | 119.8 | 9,080 | 7,582,384 | 131 | 16.8% | 28.7% |
| Idaho | 119.6 | 2,393 | 2,001,619 | 94 | 16.7% | 12.6% |
| Maine | 119.6 | 1,681 | 1,405,012 | 131 | 15.6% | 31.6% |
| Wyoming | 117.6 | 691 | 587,618 | 46 | 14.0% | 18.3% |
| South Dakota | 115.7 | 1,070 | 924,669 | 86 | 14.1% | 27.9% |
| North Dakota | 115.5 | 920 | 796,568 | 67 | 15.3% | 29.5% |
| Utah | 115.3 | 4,039 | 3,503,613 | 110 | 20.7% | 9.7% |
| Montana | 113.8 | 1,294 | 1,137,233 | 87 | 18.5% | 20.4% |
| Nevada | 113.4 | 3,705 | 3,267,467 | 42 | 18.0% | 32.6% |
| North Carolina | 112.1 | 12,381 | 11,046,024 | 353 | 17.6% | 36.8% |
| Wisconsin | 111.2 | 6,628 | 5,960,975 | 347 | 14.4% | 31.3% |
| Oklahoma | 110.8 | 4,536 | 4,095,393 | 174 | 13.3% | 28.2% |
| Pennsylvania | 110.5 | 14,448 | 13,078,751 | 698 | 19.4% | 32.6% |
| Texas | 108.5 | 33,953 | 31,290,831 | 589 | 17.4% | 40.0% |
| New Mexico | 108.1 | 2,303 | 2,130,256 | 94 | 14.8% | 27.8% |
| Florida | 108.0 | 25,252 | 23,372,215 | 352 | 17.8% | 41.2% |
| South Carolina | 106.8 | 5,854 | 5,478,831 | 175 | 17.1% | 33.5% |
| Rhode Island | 106.5 | 1,185 | 1,112,308 | 40 | 20.3% | 33.2% |
| Iowa | 106.2 | 3,441 | 3,241,488 | 235 | 16.8% | 32.8% |
| Kansas | 103.7 | 3,082 | 2,970,606 | 168 | 15.2% | 30.1% |
| Indiana | 100.9 | 6,986 | 6,924,275 | 265 | 16.2% | 33.3% |
| Kentucky | 100.5 | 4,611 | 4,588,372 | 212 | 16.2% | 36.7% |
| Missouri | 99.8 | 6,230 | 6,245,466 | 264 | 14.9% | 30.0% |
| Ohio | 99.3 | 11,806 | 11,883,304 | 416 | 16.7% | 31.3% |
| Arkansas | 93.6 | 2,891 | 3,088,354 | 165 | 15.2% | 23.9% |
| Tennessee | 93.3 | 6,741 | 7,227,750 | 231 | 19.3% | 29.8% |
| West Virginia | 91.1 | 1,612 | 1,769,979 | 159 | 14.5% | 32.7% |
| Louisiana | 89.7 | 4,125 | 4,597,740 | 169 | 18.2% | 33.9% |
| Alabama | 87.7 | 4,523 | 5,157,699 | 222 | 19.1% | 31.0% |
| Georgia | 87.2 | 9,750 | 11,180,878 | 271 | 19.0% | 36.2% |
| Mississippi | 86.4 | 2,543 | 2,943,045 | 154 | 16.3% | 32.9% |
| Delaware | 86.1 | 906 | 1,051,917 | 29 | 22.6% | 35.6% |
| Puerto Rico | 77.5 | 2,483 | 3,203,295 | 82 | 20.6% | 46.4% |
The towns furthest from a dentist
| Town | State | To the nearest listed practice |
|---|---|---|
| Tonto Basin | AZ | 33 miles |
| Flasher | ND | 30 miles |
| Turner | MT | 30 miles |
| Berthold | ND | 30 miles |
| Ocracoke | NC | 30 miles |
| Coffee Creek | CA | 30 miles |
| Briggsdale | CO | 30 miles |
| Tolna | ND | 30 miles |
| Blue Ridge | AZ | 29 miles |
| Ransom | KS | 29 miles |
Measured from the center of each Census place to the nearest practice address we hold. 32,333 towns were measured.
Women in dentistry, by state
Across the country, the registry records the sex of individual practitioners. The share who are women runs from 9.7% in Utah to 46.4% in Puerto Rico.
| State | Share who are women | Dentists | People |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puerto Rico | 46.4% | 2,483 | 3,203,295 |
| District of Columbia | 45.1% | 1,332 | 702,250 |
| Massachusetts | 43.2% | 13,295 | 7,136,171 |
| Florida | 41.2% | 25,252 | 23,372,215 |
| Maryland | 41.0% | 8,216 | 6,263,220 |
| California | 40.0% | 58,867 | 39,431,263 |
| Texas | 40.0% | 33,953 | 31,290,831 |
| Virginia | 37.8% | 11,031 | 8,811,195 |
| New Jersey | 37.0% | 12,635 | 9,500,851 |
| North Carolina | 36.8% | 12,381 | 11,046,024 |
How this was counted
- Dentists: every active dental provider in the National Provider Identifier registry, NPPES, August 2026 release, filtered to dental taxonomies and to practice addresses in the United States.
- People: US Census Bureau population estimates, 2024.
- Distances: from the center of each Census place to the nearest practice address, in a straight line. Practice addresses come from the Census geocoder.
- A registered dentist is not the same as a practice taking new patients, and one address can hold many registrations, a dental school above all. Read the numbers as supply of registered dentists, not as available appointments.
Use these numbers
Free to quote, chart or republish, including commercially, with a link to this page. The underlying sources are public domain; the analysis is ours.
Download the state table (CSV)
Also here: every town and its dentist count (11,685 rows), the towns furthest from one (32,333 rows), and the method and license. Ask us if you need a cut we do not publish, by state, county or specialty.
Suggested citation: Dent-OX, "How many dentists does America have, and where are they?", https://dent-ox.com/research/how-many-dentists-in-america/
Looking for a dentist rather than a number?
The same registry, as a directory you can search by town, ZIP code or specialty.