Total first-year enrollment at 73 dental schools
By Ariana Portalatin
Originally at beckersdental.com
Summary & scoring by The Bell Brief (Dr. Jennifer Bell) using the Drill-Down Protocol (Drill-Down Score) — not the original publisher.
Why it matters for dental
Dental school class-size data directly affects future workforce supply, which in turn influences practice staffing costs, DSO acquisition targets, and competitive pressure for associates in most markets.
Key points
- Total first-year enrollment across 73 U.S. dental schools for 2025-26 stands at 7,296 students, the largest entering cohort on record.
- Two newest schools—Lyon College (Little Rock) and A.T. Still University (Arizona/Mesa) campuses—are already contributing 80–100 seats each, accelerating geographic expansion of new graduates.
- Per-school first-year classes range from 40 to 110 seats, with flagship state schools (Alabama, Michigan, Texas) anchoring the high end and newer private schools filling the low end.
- DSOs and multi-location groups tracking regional graduate pipelines can now model future associate recruitment pools by state or metro area using this enrollment table.
Who should care
Read the original on Becker's Dental + DSO Review
Full reporting and any paywall content live on beckersdental.com. We summarize and score; we do not republish.
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