How to Get Into Dental School and Become a Dentist
Dentists are highly trained clinicians who take care of everything in and around people’s mouths, including teeth, gums and jaws, and they have doctorates in dentistry.
The median salary for a dentist in the U.S. in 2023 was $170,910, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Dentists who specialize, becoming oral and maxillofacial surgeons or orthodontists, typically earn salaries over $239,000.
However, getting accepted into dental school isn’t easy. Only 53.8% of applicants who sought admission to the 76 accredited dental schools in the U.S. for the 2024-2025 school year actually enrolled as first-year dental students that year, according to admission statistics from the American Dental Education Association.
“It’s challenging to get into these programs and becoming more challenging with a surge in application numbers,” says Paul Jardine, interim director of admissions at the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities School of Dentistry. For example, the school’s applications increased from around 600 in 2019 to over 1,700 in 2024, he says.
This reflects a broader national trend, Jardine says. The number of U.S. dentistry school applicants in 2024 – 12,491 – was the highest since 2007, and the number of first-year enrollees, 6,719, was the highest since 2000, according to ADA data.
Individual applicants are also applying to many more schools than they used to, he says. “It’s a clear sign that people are interested in the profession.”
Here’s what aspiring dentists need to know.
Types of Dental Degrees and Dentists
A dentist may hold either a DDS, or Doctor of Dental Surgery, or a DMD, Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry or Doctor of Dental Medicine, which are equivalent degrees.
Dental school typically lasts four years. An accelerated degree may take only three years to finish, but those programs are rare. Dental graduate programs usually involve science coursework and a clinical curriculum.
“While student-dentists get about four breaks between quarters, each year of dental school is essentially a fast-paced 12-month blend of classroom, simulation laboratory and clinical education,” Jack Gormley, assistant dean for learner success and belonging at the University of California—San Francisco School of Dentistry, wrote in an email.
