Dental Assistant: how many are there, and how many are in private practice?

National totals

What this specialty covers

An individual who may or may not have completed an accredited dental assisting education program and who aids the dentist in providing patient care services and performs other nonclinical duties in the dental office or other patient care facility. The scope of the patient care functions that may be legally delegated to the dental assistant varies based on the needs of the dentist the educational preparation of the dental assistant and state dental practice acts and regulations. Patient care services are provided under the supervision of a dentist. To avoid misleading the public, no occupational title other than dental assistant should be used to describe this dental auxiliary.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For this specialty, the sole-proprietor share can indicate how some Dental Assistant NPI records are classified, but it should not be treated as a direct count of assistants in private practice. The flag is a self-reported NPPES field and an imperfect proxy for private practice because it does not establish ownership, employment status, work setting, or independent practice.

By state

New NPI registrations by year

Counts reflect the year each NPI was first issued, among records still active today. The final year is partial: this data covers through 2026-01-11.

Data notes

• The sole-proprietor field is self-reported by the provider in NPPES and is an imperfect proxy for private practice.
• A sole-proprietor count shown as <11 is suppressed: the true value is below 11, which could include zero.
• Counts cover active NPI records with Dental Assistant as the primary classification, not a census of dental assistants, positions, or practices.
• Dental assistant duties, delegation, supervision, and training requirements vary by state, so the counts do not represent identical clinical scope everywhere.
• Providers are counted once, by their primary taxonomy code only.

Source: CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Data Dissemination file, FOIA-disclosable public data under CMS-6060-N. Aggregated by Hero EMR on 2026-08-03; deactivated NPIs excluded; specialty assigned from the primary taxonomy code (NUCC 25.1). Counts below 11 are suppressed. Individual providers are never published. All provider data pages.

Common questions