What 7,900 Dental Professionals Revealed in a State of Work Report

The dental workforce is at an inflection point. Stagnant wages, mounting burnout, and a fundamental shift in how professionals think about their careers have created a profession that looks very different from what it did even a few years ago.

GoTu recently published the 2026 State of Work Report, the third edition of what has grown into the largest ongoing study of the U.S. dental workforce. This year, more than 7,900 dental professionals responded, including registered dental hygienists, dental assistants, and associate dentists from across the country. The result is a cross-role, multi-year picture of what is actually changing in the industry, and just as importantly, what isn't.

Compensation is still the number one issue, by a wide margin.

For three years running, better pay has ranked as the top desired improvement among dental professionals, and not by a small margin. This year it leads the second-ranked item by 20 points. The 2026 data shows why that hasn't changed: 59% of respondents did not receive a raise in the past two years. Nearly 75% receive no bonus of any kind, and 44.7% report having zero benefits at all.

For dental assistants, the most common hourly rate falls between $21 and $30. For the majority who have financial dependents, that number hits differently than it appears on a job posting. Hygienists earn significantly more, but higher pay doesn't insulate them from the same frustrations. When more than half didn't see a raise last year and three-quarters have no path to performance-based compensation, the problem isn't individual. It's structural.

Burnout is widespread, persistent, and getting harder to ignore.

54.1% of all respondents report having experienced burnout. Among hygienists, that figure climbs to 60.6%. These numbers have been consistent across all three years of this survey, which is itself a finding worth focusing on.

What's driving burnout isn't a mystery. Workload tops the list, followed closely by toxic office culture. Both are organizational problems that require organizational solutions. Among professionals who report burnout, more than half have changed offices because of it, nearly half have considered leaving the field entirely, and more than 40% have reduced their hours. This isn't a retention crisis waiting to happen. It's one already in progress, playing out in reduced availability and professionals who stay but give less of themselves over time.

Despite all of this, 74% of respondents have never left dentistry. The profession is not losing people in dramatic waves. It is losing them in adjustments, in smaller commitments, and in a slow erosion of engagement.

The way dental professionals work is changing.

84.6% of dental professionals have worked at least one temporary shift. Nearly 4 in 10 now incorporate temp work into their regular schedule as a deliberate career strategy, not as a bridge between permanent jobs. That share has grown every year since this survey began.

This shift reflects something real about what dental professionals want: flexibility, variety, and control over their own schedules. Across all three roles, the majority prefer short-term assignments, though how strongly varies by profession.

There's a specific window at a practice when everything is most at risk.

64% of dental professionals say their longest tenure at a single practice is five years or less. The 3-to-5 year range is the single largest cohort at 31.6%. And when you look at why professionals leave a specific office, the reasons are consistent: culture (52%), pay (46.9%), leadership (37.1%), and hours and flexibility (36.5%). These aren't abstract complaints. They are the specific conditions that, when left unaddressed, turn a promising hire into a resignation letter.

The report names this pattern the 3-to-5-year cliff, and it has direct implications for every practice owner and DSO leader thinking about retention. The practices that keep their people are not doing anything complicated. They are paying attention earlier, having real conversations about workload and compensation before someone starts looking elsewhere, and building a culture that gives professionals a reason to stay past year three.

Autonomy is a bigger part of the story than most practices realize.

62% of dental professionals say that greater clinical decision-making authority would increase their likelihood of staying in the profession. In a field already under significant compensation and burnout pressure, clinical autonomy is a concrete retention lever that most offices haven't pulled.

The question is: why aren't more practices paying attention to it?

So what's next?

82.8% of respondents expect to still be working in dentistry ten years from now. The dental workforce is committed to the work. What they are asking for, across all three professions and all three years of this data, are conditions that make staying feel like the obvious answer: fair compensation, manageable workloads, a culture that treats clinical professionals as the experts they are, and flexibility that doesn't come at the cost of stability.

[Download the 2026 State of Work Report]