Dental Assisting/Assistant Degrees (2026 stats)
TL;DR
Dental Assisting/Assistant maps to BLS occupations averaging about $64,987, with roughly 1,596,050 workers nationwide in those roles. Median in-state published tuition is about $4,820; common paths include Teachers, Postsecondary and Secondary School Teachers.
Key Statistics
Dental Assisting/Assistant: what the data shows
Common questions about dental assisting/assistant degrees, answered from IPEDS, College Scorecard, BLS OEWS, and O*NET in this repository—not program marketing copy.
What is a dental assisting/assistant degree?
A Dental Assisting/Assistant program is classified under NCES CIP 51.0601 in the Dental Support Services and Allied Professions field family (51.06).
A program that prepares individuals to provide patient care, take dental radiographs (x-ray photographs), prepare patients and equipment for dental procedures, and discharge office administrative functions under the supervision of dentists and dental hygienists. Includes instruction in medical record-keeping, general office duties, reception and patient intake, scheduling, equipment maintenance and sterilization, basic radiography, pre- and post-operative patient care and instruction, chairside assisting, taking tooth and mouth impressions, and supervised practice
IPEDS counted 1 completions for this CIP in the survey year in our extract.
Types of dental assisting/assistant degrees and related programs
Other NCES program codes in the 51.06 family with pages on EDsmart Data:
- Dental Hygiene/Hygienist (CIP 51.0602)
- Dental Laboratory Technology/Technician (CIP 51.0603)
How long does it take to get a dental assisting/assistant degree?
Award levels reported to IPEDS for CIP 51.0601 in our file:
- 1,362 Associate (50.0% of IPEDS total)—about two years of full-time study
- 1 Bachelor's (0.0% of IPEDS total)—typically four years
- 1,362 Master's (50.0% of IPEDS total)—one to two years beyond a bachelor's
Time to completion depends on enrollment intensity and transfer credits; figures above describe credential type, not calendar time for every student.
What do you learn in dental assisting/assistant?
O*NET skill ratings for occupations mapped to this major emphasize Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Speaking, Writing, Critical Thinking, Service Orientation, and related competencies. See the Skills section for the full list in our extract.
What degree do you need?
For Teachers, Postsecondary (top mapped occupation), O*NET incumbent surveys in our career profile report these education credentials most often: Some college (29%), High School or Equivalent (27%), Bachelors Degree (22%).
O*NET education distributions describe incumbent workers, not minimum legal or employer requirements.
What jobs can you get with a dental assisting/assistant degree?
Our degree→occupation mapping links Dental Assisting/Assistant to the BLS roles below. Employment is U.S. OEWS; median wage is national May 2024 where published in our extract.
| Occupation | U.S. employment | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Teachers, Postsecondary | 1,500,000 | — |
| Secondary School Teachers | 1,072,540 | $64,580 |
See Careers & Jobs for mean wages and industry context.
Is a dental assisting/assistant degree worth it?
College Scorecard national medians for the Dental Support Services and Allied Professions bachelor's program family: median debt $28,290, median earnings $68,061 four years after enrollment. Debt-to-earnings proxy: 0.47.
About 0.0% of graduates in this field family were not working and not enrolled one year after completion in Scorecard's national program medians.
Among schools reporting in our Scorecard extract, median published in-state tuition is $4,820 and median net price is $11,656.
We do not score "worth" on opinion—compare debt, earnings, wages for mapped occupations, and completion data above against your cost and career target.
Institutions
Information about the types of higher education institutions that grant degrees in Dental Assisting/Assistant and the types of students that study this field.
Tuition Costs for Common Institutions
$4,820 Median In-State Public
$16,522 Median Out of State Private
Tuition costs for Dental Assisting/Assistant majors are, on average, $4,820 for in-state public colleges, and $16,522 for out of state private colleges.
Tuition costs comparison for Dental Assisting/Assistant programs.
Degrees Awarded Over Time
1 Total Degrees Awarded in 2023
This chart shows the number of degrees awarded in Dental Assisting/Assistant from 2015 to 2023.
Historical trend of degrees awarded in Dental Assisting/Assistant.
Top 5 Schools by Enrollment
| # | School | State | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas A&M University-College Station | TX | 59,615 |
| 2 | Texas A&M University-College Station | TX | 59,615 |
| 3 | Ivy Tech Community College | IN | 58,267 |
| 4 | Ivy Tech Community College | IN | 58,267 |
| 5 | Miami Dade College | FL | 46,182 |
Schools with the largest enrollment offering Dental Assisting/Assistant programs.
Top 5 Most Affordable Tuition
| # | School | State | Tuition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taft College | CA | $1,108 |
| 2 | San Diego Mesa College | CA | $1,146 |
| 3 | San Diego Mesa College | CA | $1,146 |
| 4 | Imperial Valley College | CA | $1,148 |
| 5 | Imperial Valley College | CA | $1,148 |
Schools with the lowest tuition costs for Dental Assisting/Assistant programs.
Top 5 Lowest Net Price
| # | School | State | Net Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | College of San Mateo | CA | $536 |
| 2 | College of San Mateo | CA | $536 |
| 3 | Wiregrass Georgia Technical College | GA | $614 |
| 4 | Wiregrass Georgia Technical College | GA | $614 |
| 5 | Imperial Valley College | CA | $1,115 |
Schools with the lowest average net price for Dental Assisting/Assistant programs.
Graduation Rates
51.95% Median Graduation Rate (150% of normal time)
51.40% Average Graduation Rate
365 Institutions Reporting
36.12% - 65.48% Interquartile Range
Graduation/completion rates for Dental Assisting/Assistant programs across institutions.
Where students complete this major (IPEDS)
Bachelor's-level completions (IPEDS Completions, award level 5) summed by institution state. State is taken from IPEDS Directory (HD2023) for each reporting institution.
Geographic concentration
The largest number of reported bachelor's completions for Dental Assisting/Assistant is in MI (1 completions). That state represents about 100.0% of U.S. bachelor's completions reported for this CIP in the IPEDS file we use.
Among states, the highest concentration relative to all bachelor's degrees awarded in-state is MI (0.00% of that state's bachelor's completions).
Top states by count of bachelor's completions for this CIP (IPEDS).
| State | Bachelor's completions (this CIP) | % of U.S. total (this CIP) | % of state's all bachelor's |
|---|---|---|---|
| MI | 1 | 100.0% | 0.00% |
Related specializations
Other NCES program codes in the 51.06 CIP family with dedicated pages on EDsmart Data.
- Dental Hygiene/Hygienist CIP 51.0602
- Dental Laboratory Technology/Technician CIP 51.0603
Degree Levels (IPEDS)
Completions reported to IPEDS for CIP 51.0601 in the survey year used in our extract (2,725 total across levels below).
- 1,362 Associate (50.0% of IPEDS total)
- 1 Bachelor's (0.0% of IPEDS total)
- 1,362 Master's (50.0% of IPEDS total)
Source: IPEDS Completions (c2024_a), summed by award level for this CIP.
Careers & Jobs
Occupations linked to this major in our degree→career mapping, with wages and employment from processed BLS career profiles in this repo.
Across these BLS occupations, employment-weighted mean pay is about $64,987. Figures are national OEWS estimates for the occupation—not earnings of Dental Assisting/Assistant graduates alone.
Related occupations (BLS OEWS)
| Occupation | Mean annual wage | U.S. employment |
|---|---|---|
| Teachers, Postsecondary | $36,511 | 1,500,000 |
| Secondary School Teachers | $104,813 | 1,072,540 |
Open each occupation for full career profile charts and industry breakdowns on EDsmart Data.
Program outcomes (College Scorecard)
National medians across bachelor's programs in the Dental Support Services and Allied Professions CIP family (7 programs reporting debt). Not specific to every Dental Assisting/Assistant graduate.
- $28,290 median federal loan debt among completers
- $68,061 median earnings four years after enrollment (national program median)
- 0.47 debt-to-earnings ratio (Scorecard proxy)
- 0.0% of graduates not working and not enrolled one year out (program cohort)
Source: College Scorecard program-level outcomes aggregated by 4-digit CIP family.
Employment
Wages and industry mix below use BLS OEWS data for occupations linked to this major in our mapping—not a graduate earnings survey.
Yearly Income for Common Jobs
$40,621 Average Wage in Workforce
The average salary for Dental Assisting/Assistant majors is $40,621.
Average annual salaries of the most common occupations for Dental Assisting/Assistant majors.
Occupations by Share
1,596,050 2023 Workforce
The number of Dental Assisting/Assistant graduates in the workforce has been growing.
Various jobs filled by those with a major in Dental Assisting/Assistant by share of the total number of graduates.
Diversity
Demographic information for those who earn a degree in Dental Assisting/Assistant in the United States.
Workforce Age
N/A Average Age in 2023
This chart shows distribution of ages for employees with a degree in Dental Assisting/Assistant.
Age distribution for Dental Assisting/Assistant degree holders in the workforce.
Gender Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
1 Total Degrees Awarded
1 Female (100.00%)
Gender distribution of Dental Assisting/Assistant degree recipients.
Race and Ethnicity Distribution
Counts below are bachelor's-level completions only (IPEDS Completions, award level 5).
1 White (100.00%)
Racial and ethnic distribution of Dental Assisting/Assistant degree recipients.
Degrees Awarded
The most common degree types awarded to students graduating in Dental Assisting/Assistant are Bachelors Degree, Masters Degree, and Associates Degree.
Distribution of degree types awarded in Dental Assisting/Assistant.
Skills
Data on the critical and distinctive skills necessary for those working in the Dental Assisting/Assistant field from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Required Skills
Dental Assisting/Assistant majors need many skills, but most especially Critical Thinking, Active Listening, and Reading Comprehension.
Rating of how necessary various skills are for Dental Assisting/Assistant majors.
Skills Bar Chart
This bar chart shows the same information as the radar chart, displaying the importance of each skill.
Skill importance ratings for Dental Assisting/Assistant majors.
About
A program that prepares individuals to provide patient care, take dental radiographs (x-ray photographs), prepare patients and equipment for dental procedures, and discharge office administrative functions under the supervision of dentists and dental hygienists. Includes instruction in medical record-keeping, general office duties, reception and patient intake, scheduling, equipment maintenance and sterilization, basic radiography, pre- and post-operative patient care and instruction, chairside assisting, taking tooth and mouth impressions, and supervised practice
In 2023, 1 degrees were awarded across all undergraduate and graduate programs in Dental Assisting/Assistant.
CIP Code
51.0601 - Dental Assisting/Assistant
What the data shows
At the program-family level, College Scorecard reports median debt of $28,290 for bachelor's completers and median earnings near $68,061, a debt-to-earnings ratio of 0.47. Those figures describe national program cohorts in this CIP family—not every individual Dental Assisting/Assistant graduate.
Women earned 92.0% of 15,557 Dental Assisting/Assistant completions in the IPEDS file used here.
Mapped BLS occupations show employment-weighted mean pay of about $64,987. The largest mapped role by headcount is Teachers, Postsecondary (1,500,000 U.S. jobs in OEWS).
Published tuition medians in College Scorecard land at $4,820 in-state at public colleges and $16,522 at private institutions for programs in this field.
Data Sources
This page uses data from the following sources:
- College Scorecard - U.S. Department of Education
- Institutional characteristics, costs, completion rates, and earnings data
- Data years: 2015-2024
- Source: collegescorecard.ed.gov
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)
- Employment and wage data by occupation
- Latest data: May 2024
- Source: bls.gov/oes
- O*NET Online - U.S. Department of Labor
- Occupational skills, knowledge, abilities, and work activities
- Database version: 28.0 (August 2023)
- Source: onetcenter.org
- IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) - National Center for Education Statistics
- Institutional data, completions, enrollment, and financial aid
- Data years: 2015-2024
- Source: nces.ed.gov/ipeds
- Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS)
- Demographic and workforce data
- Latest data: 2023 ACS 5-Year Estimates
- Source: census.gov/acs
Data Processing: All data has been processed, cleaned, and aggregated for presentation. Where specific data points are unavailable, estimates are based on available data and clearly marked.
Last Updated: Data reflects the most recent available information as of January 2025.
Methodology
Data for this profile is sourced from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard dataset, IPEDS completion data, and Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data.
All financial figures are adjusted for inflation and represent the most recent available data. Employment and wage data are from the most recent Census Bureau ACS PUMS estimates.