US dental offices from the CMS NPPES register: fields, method and prices, nationwide or by state.
How many dentists are in the US?
About 200,000 dentists are practicing in the United States, by our estimate from federal registry and Medicare data as of September 2026, with a range of 186,000 to 219,000. The American Dental Association's 2025 count of 205,088 professionally active dentists falls inside that range. We estimate they work in about 137,000 dental offices, from CMS NPPES, BLS, Census and map data.
We estimate about 200,000 practicing dentists in the US (range 186,000 to 219,000).
~200,000The ADA Health Policy Institute counts 205,088 professionally active dentists in the US.
205,088We estimate about 137,000 dental offices in the US (range 125,000 to 154,000).
~137,000The NPPES file holds about 273,000 active dentist NPIs, an upper bound because many belong to retired dentists.
~273,000California has the most practicing dentists by our estimate.
~27,000What counts as a dentist, a practice or an organization?
The figures on this page count different things, so they don't contradict each other. This table puts them side by side. Our own counts are rounded.
Practicing dentist (our estimate)
What it counts: Dentist NPIs with at least one sign of current activity (see the method below)
Latest figure: ~200,000 (range 186,000 to 219,000)
Source and date: nodilist model: CMS NPPES, 14 Sep 2026, and Medicare Part D, 2024
Professionally active dentist
What it counts: Dentists working in dentistry (practice, teaching, research, administration)
Latest figure: 205,088
Source and date: ADA HPI, 2025
Dentist job
What it counts: Wage-and-salary jobs held by dentists; self-employed owners excluded
Latest figure: 141,610
Source and date: BLS OEWS, May 2025
Dentist NPI (Type 1)
What it counts: Individual dentists holding an active National Provider Identifier; an upper bound
Latest figure: ~273,000
Source and date: CMS NPPES, 14 Sep 2026
Dental office (our estimate)
What it counts: Places where patients are seen, one per practice location
Latest figure: ~137,000 (range 125,000 to 154,000)
Source and date: nodilist, from four sources (see below)
Office of dentists
What it counts: Business establishments in NAICS 621210 with employees covered by unemployment insurance
Latest figure: 138,795
Source and date: BLS QCEW, Q4 2025
Dental organization NPI (Type 2)
What it counts: Practices, group entities and clinics registered as organizations
Latest figure: ~137,000
Source and date: CMS NPPES, 14 Sep 2026
Registered practice address
What it counts: Distinct practice addresses (street + ZIP) that dental NPIs list, after address cleanup; includes stale and duplicate addresses, so an upper bound
Latest figure: ~217,000
Source and date: CMS NPPES, 14 Sep 2026, our grouping
A practitioner is a person. A practice is a place where patients are seen. An organization is the legal entity that bills, and one organization can run many practices. NPPES registers people and organizations. It doesn't register practices, so any practice count built from it is an estimate. The register table on the dentist list page counts ~218,000 registered practice addresses in the same file. The two counts clean addresses and assign states differently, so they differ slightly; both are upper bounds.
How do we estimate practicing dentists?
We start from the roughly 273,000 dentist NPIs in the CMS file of 14 September 2026 and count those with at least one sign of recent activity. About 200,000 have one. The four signals are:
| Signal | What it means | Dentist NPIs with it |
|---|---|---|
| Record updated within 5 years | The dentist or CMS changed the NPPES record after 14 Sep 2021 | ~83,000 |
| (of which within 3 years) | Changed after 14 Sep 2023 | ~58,000 |
| Registered in 2016 or later | NPI issued in the last ten years, so most are early-career dentists | ~72,000 |
| Shares an address with an active practice | The practice address matches one where a dental organization NPI was updated within 5 years | ~47,000 |
| Wrote Medicare Part D prescriptions in 2024 | The NPI appears in CMS "Medicare Part D Prescribers by Provider" for 2024 | ~138,000 |
| At least one signal (our estimate) | ~200,000 | |
| No signal | ~73,000 |
Counts are rounded.
Counts are rounded. Exact values are in the CSV.
The signals overlap. About 103,000 NPIs have exactly one signal, 60,000 have two, 30,000 have three and 6,600 have all four. The Part D signal carries the most weight: about 74,000 NPIs are counted only because they wrote Medicare prescriptions in 2024.
The range comes from two variants of the model:
- Low, about 186,000. We keep only the three most direct signals: an update within 3 years, registration in 2016 or later, and Part D prescribing.
- High, about 219,000. We also count the roughly 19,000 no-signal NPIs registered from 2008 onward. They registered after the 2005 to 2007 rollout, so most started practice after 2007 and few will have retired.
Most of the 73,000 or so NPIs with no signal are old records. About 53,000 were issued during the 2005 to 2007 rollout, and about 41,000 have not been updated since 2007.
How it compares. Our estimate is 97.5% of the ADA's 205,088 professionally active dentists. The ADA figure also includes dentists who teach, research or administer without treating patients. The BLS job count of 141,610 is lower than both because it counts employees only, so dentists who own their practice are outside it.
Where the model is weak. CMS leaves prescribers with fewer than 11 Part D claims in a year out of the file, and specialists who rarely prescribe (orthodontists, pediatric dentists) are undercounted. A dentist who works only in a DSO or clinic, never updates the NPI and never writes Medicare prescriptions has no signal even when active. In the other direction, a record update or a 2024 prescription doesn't prove the dentist is still practicing in September 2026.
How many dentists are in each state?
California has about 27,000 practicing dentists by our estimate, followed by Texas (about 16,000), Florida (13,000), New York (12,000) and Illinois (8,300). The table covers all 50 states and DC, sorted by estimated practicing dentists. The NPI column is the registry count and serves as an upper bound. For the register's practice addresses in every state, with each state's share of the US, see registered dental addresses by state on the dentist list page. Sources: our model on the CMS NPPES file of 14 September 2026 and Medicare Part D 2024; population from US Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates for July 1, 2025.
| Rank | State | Est. practicing dentists | Per 100k residents (est.) | Dentist NPIs (upper bound) | Dental org NPIs | Registered practice addresses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 27,000 | 69.4 | 40,000 | 19,000 | 33,000 |
| 2 | Texas | 16,000 | 50.6 | 21,000 | 13,000 | 19,000 |
| 3 | Florida | 13,000 | 57.4 | 17,000 | 8,500 | 14,000 |
| 4 | New York | 12,000 | 60.5 | 18,000 | 6,400 | 15,000 |
| 5 | Illinois | 8,300 | 65.5 | 12,000 | 5,800 | 9,200 |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | 7,400 | 56.6 | 10,000 | 4,300 | 7,800 |
| 7 | Michigan | 6,700 | 66.3 | 8,800 | 4,800 | 6,600 |
| 8 | New Jersey | 6,300 | 65.6 | 8,800 | 3,900 | 7,400 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | 6,300 | 87.5 | 8,700 | 4,700 | 6,000 |
| 10 | North Carolina | 6,200 | 55.8 | 7,800 | 4,700 | 5,900 |
| 11 | Ohio | 6,200 | 51.9 | 8,400 | 3,400 | 6,000 |
| 12 | Virginia | 5,400 | 61.3 | 7,400 | 3,700 | 5,700 |
| 13 | Washington | 5,400 | 67.8 | 7,500 | 4,300 | 5,900 |
| 14 | Georgia | 5,000 | 44.6 | 6,700 | 3,100 | 5,500 |
| 15 | Arizona | 4,200 | 55.4 | 5,500 | 3,600 | 4,900 |
| 16 | Colorado | 4,200 | 70.0 | 5,700 | 3,500 | 4,700 |
| 17 | Maryland | 4,100 | 65.4 | 5,600 | 2,700 | 4,400 |
| 18 | Minnesota | 3,500 | 60.3 | 4,900 | 2,400 | 3,400 |
| 19 | Tennessee | 3,500 | 47.2 | 4,500 | 2,200 | 3,600 |
| 20 | Wisconsin | 3,400 | 57.2 | 4,800 | 1,800 | 3,000 |
| 21 | Indiana | 3,400 | 48.7 | 4,500 | 2,500 | 3,400 |
| 22 | Missouri | 3,300 | 52.5 | 4,300 | 1,900 | 3,100 |
| 23 | Oregon | 2,900 | 67.1 | 3,900 | 1,700 | 2,800 |
| 24 | South Carolina | 2,800 | 50.7 | 3,600 | 2,300 | 2,800 |
| 25 | Connecticut | 2,500 | 66.4 | 3,500 | 1,700 | 2,600 |
| 26 | Kentucky | 2,300 | 50.8 | 3,300 | 1,300 | 2,400 |
| 27 | Louisiana | 2,300 | 49.2 | 3,000 | 1,200 | 2,200 |
| 28 | Oklahoma | 2,200 | 53.2 | 2,900 | 1,600 | 2,300 |
| 29 | Alabama | 2,100 | 40.6 | 2,800 | 1,800 | 2,300 |
| 30 | Utah | 1,900 | 54.9 | 2,600 | 1,500 | 2,500 |
| 31 | Nevada | 1,800 | 55.2 | 2,400 | 1,400 | 1,900 |
| 32 | Iowa | 1,700 | 53.6 | 2,500 | 960 | 1,600 |
| 33 | Kansas | 1,600 | 52.8 | 2,000 | 1,100 | 1,600 |
| 34 | Nebraska | 1,300 | 66.3 | 1,800 | 700 | 1,200 |
| 35 | Mississippi | 1,300 | 44.0 | 1,700 | 880 | 1,300 |
| 36 | Arkansas | 1,200 | 38.7 | 1,600 | 1,300 | 1,500 |
| 37 | Idaho | 1,100 | 55.5 | 1,400 | 980 | 1,200 |
| 38 | New Mexico | 1,100 | 52.2 | 1,500 | 770 | 1,300 |
| 39 | Hawaii | 1,000 | 69.5 | 1,400 | 700 | 1,200 |
| 40 | New Hampshire | 880 | 62.4 | 1,200 | 770 | 930 |
| 41 | West Virginia | 820 | 46.7 | 1,100 | 480 | 850 |
| 42 | Maine | 800 | 56.8 | 1,100 | 590 | 760 |
| 43 | Montana | 650 | 56.5 | 910 | 390 | 690 |
| 44 | District of Columbia | 630 | 91.4 | 940 | 400 | 760 |
| 45 | Rhode Island | 580 | 52.5 | 790 | 410 | 540 |
| 46 | Alaska | 530 | 72.4 | 820 | 420 | 610 |
| 47 | South Dakota | 470 | 50.2 | 640 | 430 | 470 |
| 48 | Delaware | 450 | 42.4 | 570 | 340 | 440 |
| 49 | North Dakota | 410 | 51.2 | 600 | 330 | 440 |
| 50 | Vermont | 360 | 56.2 | 510 | 290 | 370 |
| 51 | Wyoming | 310 | 52.5 | 440 | 250 | 340 |
| United States (50 states + DC) | ~200,000 | 58.5 | ~273,000 | ~137,000 | ~217,000 |
Counts are rounded.
Counts are rounded (to the nearest 1,000 at 10,000 and above, the nearest 100 from 1,000 to 9,999, and the nearest 10 below 1,000). Rates are computed from exact counts. The exact values, the low and high estimates and the signal counts for every state are in the CSV. States are assigned by the NPI's primary practice address, which can be out of date.
Which states have the most dentists per resident?
The District of Columbia has the most practicing dentists per resident, with an estimated 91.4 per 100,000. Arkansas has the fewest, with 38.7.
- Highest: DC (91.4), Massachusetts (87.5), Alaska (72.4), Colorado (70.0), Hawaii (69.5).
- Lowest: Arkansas (38.7), Alabama (40.6), Delaware (42.4), Mississippi (44.0), Georgia (44.6).
- Middle: the median state is Idaho, at 55.5 per 100,000.
- National: 58.5 per 100,000 residents by our estimate. The ADA's national rate is 60.0.
DC's rate is probably inflated by dentists who practise in the city but live in Maryland or Virginia, since DC has fewer than 700,000 residents. Dental schools lift the Massachusetts count: three of the six largest address clusters in the file are Boston dental school buildings, with about 270, 240 and 190 NPIs.
How many dental offices are in the US?
We estimate about 137,000 dental offices in the US, with a range of 125,000 to 154,000. That is one office per practice location where patients are seen, the same unit as one row of our dentist list.
The estimate combines four independent counts of locations. For each state we take the median of the four, and the national figure is the sum of the state medians:
| Source | What it counts | US count |
|---|---|---|
| BLS QCEW, Q4 2025 | Private offices of dentists (NAICS 621210) with employees on unemployment insurance | 138,795 |
| Census County Business Patterns, 2023 | Offices of dentists with paid employees | 135,665 |
| CMS NPPES, 14 Sep 2026, filtered by us | Registered practice addresses with current activity, duplicates merged | ~125,000 |
| Overture Maps places, release 2026-09-23.1, filtered by us | Dental points of interest marked open, duplicates merged, confidence 0.5 or higher | ~154,000 |
| Our estimate | Sum of state medians | ~137,000 |
Counts are rounded.
Why the two employer counts sit in the middle. QCEW and CBP count each business location with payroll. They miss offices run by a dentist with no employees on payroll. We expect few such offices, because patient care needs assistants, but we couldn't measure the gap. Census also counts 57,079 nonemployer dental businesses (2024). These have no paid staff. Many are probably dentists working as contractors in other practices, so we don't add them to the office count.
Why the NPPES count is lower. NPPES lists about 217,000 registered practice addresses, and many are stale. We keep an address only if it has a practicing dentist in our model, a dental organization NPI updated within 5 years, or a 2024 Medicare prescriber's address. That leaves about 144,000. We then drop about 1,500 schools, hospitals, community health centers and government clinics that we identified by organization name, and merge addresses in the same ZIP code that share a phone number. The result is about 125,000. It probably runs low because some dentists, DSO employees in particular, list a billing or head-office address instead of the office where they work.
Why Overture is higher. Overture's open map data lists about 195,000 open dental places in the US. Many are listings for individual dentists inside the same office, or the same office entered twice. Merging rows with the same street address and ZIP code and keeping confidence 0.5 or higher leaves about 154,000, which we treat as the upper end.
Office size. Of the 125,000 or so active NPPES offices, about 77,000 (62%) have one practicing dentist in our model, 28,000 have two or three, 4,500 have four or five and 2,400 have six or more. Another 13,000 have only an organization or prescriber signal and no dentist we could place there.
Dental offices by state
| Rank | State | Est. dental offices | BLS QCEW, Q4 2025 | Census CBP, 2023 | Census nonemployers, 2024 | NPPES active (ours) | Overture (ours) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 23,000 | 23,280 | 22,757 | 7,390 | 19,000 | 22,000 |
| 2 | Texas | 12,000 | 12,987 | 11,902 | 6,721 | 11,000 | 14,000 |
| 3 | Florida | 9,500 | 9,867 | 9,039 | 6,024 | 8,800 | 11,000 |
| 4 | New York | 7,900 | 7,809 | 8,001 | 4,641 | 7,900 | 8,900 |
| 5 | Illinois | 5,500 | 5,202 | 5,781 | 2,527 | 5,100 | 6,300 |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | 4,600 | 4,451 | 4,649 | 2,174 | 4,500 | 5,400 |
| 7 | New Jersey | 4,500 | 4,548 | 4,511 | 2,024 | 4,300 | 5,100 |
| 8 | Georgia | 4,000 | 4,307 | 3,663 | 1,983 | 3,200 | 4,600 |
| 9 | Michigan | 3,900 | 3,667 | 3,795 | 1,503 | 4,000 | 4,600 |
| 10 | North Carolina | 3,800 | 4,139 | 3,551 | 2,041 | 3,500 | 4,300 |
| 11 | Ohio | 3,800 | 3,813 | 3,814 | 1,396 | 3,500 | 4,500 |
| 12 | Virginia | 3,500 | 3,632 | 3,402 | 1,417 | 3,300 | 4,200 |
| 13 | Washington | 3,400 | 3,144 | 3,633 | 696 | 3,300 | 4,200 |
| 14 | Massachusetts | 3,200 | 3,083 | 3,188 | 1,225 | 3,200 | 3,600 |
| 15 | Colorado | 3,000 | 3,018 | 2,957 | 1,339 | 2,600 | 3,300 |
| 16 | Arizona | 2,800 | 2,715 | 2,922 | 1,929 | 2,800 | 3,500 |
| 17 | Maryland | 2,600 | 2,505 | 2,561 | 1,425 | 2,500 | 3,000 |
| 18 | Tennessee | 2,300 | 2,374 | 2,225 | 867 | 2,200 | 2,900 |
| 19 | Indiana | 2,200 | 2,210 | 2,246 | 556 | 2,100 | 2,700 |
| 20 | Missouri | 1,900 | 1,992 | 1,899 | 487 | 1,800 | 2,300 |
| 21 | Oregon | 1,900 | 1,963 | 1,913 | 395 | 1,700 | 2,200 |
| 22 | Wisconsin | 1,900 | 1,874 | 1,902 | 350 | 1,700 | 2,300 |
| 23 | Minnesota | 1,900 | 1,827 | 1,884 | 425 | 1,700 | 2,300 |
| 24 | Utah | 1,800 | 1,889 | 1,789 | 723 | 1,400 | 1,900 |
| 25 | South Carolina | 1,800 | 1,877 | 1,758 | 708 | 1,700 | 2,200 |
| 26 | Louisiana | 1,600 | 1,678 | 1,575 | 661 | 1,400 | 1,800 |
| 27 | Connecticut | 1,600 | 1,578 | 1,625 | 429 | 1,400 | 1,900 |
| 28 | Kentucky | 1,500 | 1,589 | 1,440 | 384 | 1,400 | 1,800 |
| 29 | Alabama | 1,500 | 1,585 | 1,402 | 651 | 1,300 | 1,800 |
| 30 | Nevada | 1,400 | 1,490 | 1,320 | 546 | 1,100 | 1,500 |
| 31 | Oklahoma | 1,400 | 1,353 | 1,373 | 515 | 1,300 | 1,600 |
| 32 | Iowa | 1,000 | 1,046 | 1,030 | 145 | 860 | 1,100 |
| 33 | Kansas | 980 | 918 | 1,021 | 275 | 940 | 1,200 |
| 34 | Mississippi | 960 | 1,006 | 915 | 393 | 820 | 1,100 |
| 35 | Arkansas | 950 | 988 | 917 | 268 | 820 | 1,100 |
| 36 | Idaho | 930 | 1,032 | 943 | 240 | 690 | 920 |
| 37 | Nebraska | 750 | 757 | 744 | 167 | 730 | 830 |
| 38 | New Mexico | 680 | 676 | 684 | 189 | 640 | 770 |
| 39 | Hawaii | 620 | 735 | 577 | 200 | 580 | 660 |
| 40 | New Hampshire | 580 | 572 | 586 | 163 | 500 | 670 |
| 41 | Montana | 500 | 483 | 529 | 65 | 380 | 510 |
| 42 | West Virginia | 490 | 485 | 473 | 106 | 500 | 590 |
| 43 | Maine | 450 | 438 | 457 | 102 | 430 | 570 |
| 44 | District of Columbia | 350 | 330 | 310 | 130 | 380 | 370 |
| 45 | Rhode Island | 320 | 313 | 327 | 91 | 310 | 380 |
| 46 | South Dakota | 320 | 317 | 317 | 66 | 250 | 350 |
| 47 | Alaska | 300 | 264 | 315 | 76 | 290 | 340 |
| 48 | Delaware | 300 | 297 | 294 | 104 | 250 | 310 |
| 49 | North Dakota | 270 | 267 | 282 | 54 | 220 | 290 |
| 50 | Wyoming | 230 | 227 | 232 | 56 | 200 | 250 |
| 51 | Vermont | 220 | 198 | 235 | 37 | 200 | 250 |
| United States | ~137,000 | 138,795 | 135,665 | 57,079 | ~125,000 | ~154,000 |
Counts are rounded.
Our own counts (estimate, NPPES, Overture) are rounded. BLS and Census figures are quoted exactly. Nonemployer businesses are shown for context and are not part of the estimate. The exact values and the low and high estimate for each state are in the CSV.
How many new dentists register each year?
Between 6,500 and 7,200 of today's active dentist NPIs were issued in each year from 2010 to 2022, with a peak of about 8,900 in 2023. The count for each year below is NPIs issued that year and still active, with a dentist taxonomy, in the 14 September 2026 file.
| Year issued | Dentist NPIs (Type 1) | Dental org NPIs (Type 2) |
|---|---|---|
| 2005–2007 | 137,000 | 33,000 |
| 2008 | 14,000 | 8,900 |
| 2009 | 7,900 | 4,000 |
| 2010 | 7,100 | 4,100 |
| 2011 | 6,800 | 4,500 |
| 2012 | 6,800 | 4,900 |
| 2013 | 7,100 | 4,700 |
| 2014 | 6,900 | 5,600 |
| 2015 | 6,700 | 6,300 |
| 2016 | 6,700 | 6,100 |
| 2017 | 6,600 | 5,300 |
| 2018 | 6,600 | 5,300 |
| 2019 | 6,600 | 5,500 |
| 2020 | 6,700 | 5,100 |
| 2021 | 6,900 | 5,500 |
| 2022 | 7,000 | 6,000 |
| 2023 | 8,900 | 5,600 |
| 2024 | 6,300 | 5,900 |
| 2025 | 5,200 | 6,100 |
| 2026 (to 13 Sep) | 4,300 | 5,000 |
Counts are rounded. Notes on the table:
- 2005 to 2007 was the rollout. Providers who file electronic claims needed an NPI by May 2007, so half of today's dentist records (50.4%) date from those three years.
- From 2008 on, the yearly figures roughly track new dentists entering the system, less the few whose NPI was later deactivated.
- Organization registrations held between 4,000 and 6,400 a year from 2009. In the 12 months to 14 September 2026, about 6,900 new dental organization NPIs and 4,700 new dentist NPIs were issued.
- We don't yet know why dentist registrations fell in 2024 and 2025. This page reflects a single file, and the next monthly files will show whether the drop holds.
How many dentists are specialists?
19.5% of dentist NPIs list a dental specialty as their primary taxonomy. The ADA reports that 21.2% of professionally active dentists work in a recognized specialty area (2025). General dentistry is the largest group, at 46.0% of NPIs. Another 34.5% use the generic "Dentist" code, which names no specialty. Most of them are probably general dentists, but the registry can't confirm it.
| Primary taxonomy | Dentist NPIs (Type 1) | Share of NPIs | With an activity signal | Dental org NPIs (Type 2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General practice | 126,000 | 46.0% | 94,000 | 55,000 |
| Dentist, no specialty given | 94,000 | 34.5% | 73,000 | 31,000 |
| Orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics | 14,000 | 5.0% | 5,600 | 7,600 |
| Pediatric dentistry | 11,000 | 4.0% | 6,000 | 6,600 |
| Oral and maxillofacial surgery | 9,100 | 3.3% | 7,400 | 4,500 |
| Endodontics | 6,700 | 2.4% | 5,000 | 2,700 |
| Periodontics | 6,600 | 2.4% | 5,000 | 2,200 |
| Prosthodontics | 3,900 | 1.4% | 2,700 | 870 |
| Dental public health | 1,100 | 0.4% | 700 | 790 |
| Oral and maxillofacial pathology | 690 | 0.3% | 470 | 240 |
| Dentist anesthesiologist | 410 | 0.1% | 280 | 180 |
| Oral and maxillofacial radiology | 200 | 0.1% | 140 | 30 |
| Orofacial pain | 190 | 0.1% | 180 | 80 |
| Dental clinic/center (organization code) | <10 | 0.0% | <10 | 26,000 |
Counts are rounded. Source: CMS NPPES file of 14 September 2026 and Medicare Part D 2024. Primary taxonomy is the dental code the provider flagged as primary, or the first dental code listed if none is flagged. Specialty codes are self-reported and are not checked against board certification. The "with an activity signal" column undercounts specialties that rarely write prescriptions, orthodontics and pediatric dentistry above all, so read it as a floor for those rows.
How many orthodontists are in the US?
About 14,000 individual NPIs list orthodontics as their primary dental specialty in the CMS NPPES file of 14 September 2026. That is a registration count and an upper bound. About the same number carry the orthodontics code in any taxonomy slot.
Our practicing-dentist model doesn't work well for orthodontists. Only about 120 orthodontist NPIs appear in the 2024 Medicare Part D prescriber data, so the model finds activity signals for about 5,600 of them. That is fewer than the 6,210 orthodontist jobs BLS counted in May 2025 (OEWS, SOC 29-1023), and the BLS figure leaves out practice owners. The number of practicing orthodontists is somewhere between 6,210 and about 14,000, and we don't publish a point estimate for them.
- Organizations: about 7,600 dental organization NPIs list orthodontics as their primary code.
- Locations: about 15,000 registered practice addresses have at least one NPI whose primary code is orthodontics. Counting the code in any taxonomy slot, as the orthodontist email list page does, gives ~17,000.
- States with the most orthodontist NPIs: California (about 1,900), Texas (1,200), New York (980), Florida (780) and Pennsylvania (580).
For practice-level orthodontist data, see the orthodontist email list.
How current is the NPPES data?
Most dentist records are old. A record's "last update date" is when the provider or CMS last changed it, not when anyone checked it.
- All dental NPIs (about 410,000): the median record was last updated about 10 years before the 14 September 2026 file date, and 69.7% haven't been updated in five years or more.
- Individual dentists: the median is about 11.7 years, and 69.4% haven't been updated in five years or more. Only 10.3% changed in the past year. About 84,000 were last updated in 2007, the year NPIs became mandatory for electronic claims.
- Registered practice addresses: at 43.1% of them (about 93,000), the newest update from any NPI at the address is more than ten years old.
This is why the raw NPI count overstates the workforce, and why a practice list built only on NPPES has to be checked against current sources.
What these numbers don't show
Whether a particular dentist is practicing. Our estimate is a count. A signal on one record makes activity likely, not certain.
Whether a particular office is open. The office estimate is a total. Individual addresses come from registrations and map listings, and we have not visited or called them.
Who owns a practice. NPPES has no ownership or DSO field. The organization's "authorized official" is a named contact, not proof of ownership.
Dentists with more than one practice. Only the primary practice address is counted here. About 21,000 individual dental NPIs list at least one extra location in a separate CMS file.
Headcount by where dentists live. States are assigned by practice address, not home address.
Changes over time. This page reflects one file, so it shows no change by state over time.
LimitsDownload the data
dentists-stats-2026-09.csvCSVCC BY 4.02026-09-29
nodilist.com, "How many dentists are in the US?", estimates modeled from the CMS NPPES file of 14 September 2026, Medicare Part D Prescribers 2024, BLS QCEW 2025 Q4, Census County Business Patterns 2023 and Overture Maps release 2026-09-23.1, with US Census Bureau Vintage 2025 population estimates, https://nodilist.com/dentists/how-many-dentists/.
Two CSVs are free to download, each with one row for the US and one for each state and DC:
- dentists-stats-2026-09.csv: estimated practicing dentists with low and high estimates and the rate per 100,000; dentist NPIs, dental organization NPIs and registered practice addresses (column
candidate_locations); the count for each activity signal; population. - dental-offices-2026-09.csv: estimated dental offices with low and high estimates; BLS QCEW, Census CBP and nonemployer counts; NPPES registered, active and deduplicated addresses; Overture places.
The CSVs hold exact values. The tables on this page round them. Both CSVs and the tables are licensed under CC BY 4.0. You can reuse them, including commercially, if you credit nodilist.com and link to this page.
Sources
- CMS, NPPES Data Dissemination V.2, file dated 14 September 2026: https://download.cms.gov/nppes/NPI_Files.html
- CMS, Medicare Part D Prescribers by Provider, data year 2024: https://data.cms.gov/provider-summary-by-type-of-service/medicare-part-d-prescribers/medicare-part-d-prescribers-by-provider
- US Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 state population estimates, July 1, 2025: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-state-total.html
- US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
- US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2024: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics.html
- ADA Health Policy Institute, Dentist Workforce (accessed 29 September 2026): https://www.ada.org/resources/research/health-policy-institute/dentist-workforce
- BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm
- BLS, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, 2025 Q4, NAICS 621210: https://data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2025/4/industry/621210.csv
- Overture Maps Foundation, places, release 2026-09-23.1: https://docs.overturemaps.org/
- Method and script: how we count
Looking for dental practice contacts?
The dentist email list is built from the same register and the offices' own websites, one row per office, with the source and last-verified date on every email. Its page has the register counts by state, the columns and the prices. You can order it nationwide or by state.
Dentist email list