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

National totals

What this specialty covers

An individual who has completed an accredited dental hygiene education program, and an individual who has been licensed by a state board of dental examiners to provide preventive care services under the supervision of a dentist. Functions that may be legally delegated to the dental hygienist vary based on the needs of the dentist, the educational preparation of the dental hygienist and state dental practice acts and regulations, but always include, at a minimum, scaling and polishing the teeth. To avoid misleading the public, no occupational title other than dental hygienist should be used to describe this dental auxiliary.

Reading the sole-proprietor share

For Dental Hygienist records, the sole-proprietor share describes the portion that NPPES identifies as sole proprietors, not a measured share of hygienists working in private practice. Because this is a self-reported NPPES field, it is an imperfect proxy and does not by itself establish ownership, employment 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.
• - NPI records are not a census of licensed dental hygienists, jobs, or hours worked.
• - State and enumeration totals depend on NPPES updates, addresses, and taxonomy choices; enumeration timing does not establish when someone began practicing.
• 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