- MEDIUM
- Industry
- Tier 1
- Hard News
The shifting dental education landscape
- Source
- Becker's Dental + DSO Review
- Author
- Ariana Portalatin
- Originally at
- beckersdental.com(opens in a new tab)
Summary and scoring by The Bell Brief (Dr. Jennifer Bell) using the Drill-Down Protocol. Not the original publisher.
Why it matters for dental
Dental school deans and practice owners face larger graduating classes alongside fewer dental-assistant graduates and sharply higher student debt, altering hiring pools and payroll planning.
Key points
- 01
U.S. dental schools report 7,296 first-year students enrolled for the 2025-26 academic year.
- 02
Dental-assistant graduates fell 33.8% over the last decade, while dental-therapy enrollment rose 533.3% since 2021.
- 03
Average dental-school tuition rose 39.7% for residents and 30.7% for nonresidents since 2015, driving average student debt up 587% since 1996.
- 04
National Institutes of Health awarded more than $263.4 million to U.S. dental schools in 2025.
Who should care
- Owner
- DSO
- Academia / research
Read the original
Becker's Dental + DSO Review
Full reporting and any paywalled content live on beckersdental.com. We summarize and score; we do not republish.