Facts

• When surveying dentist salaries across the country in 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) determined the average salary for the profession as $142,090 per year. Dentists in Vermont earned at higher rates, with the state's median wage averaging above $166,400 per year.
  
  

Range

• Not all of Vermont's 160 dentists (in May 2009) earned salaries significantly higher than the country's median. In Vermont's 10th percentile of dentists, salaries averaged $91,060 per year. Although the BLS did not report figures on Vermont's 90th percentile wage for its dentists, it cited that the figure was equal to or higher than the state's 50th percentile wage of $166,400 per year.
  
  

Considerations

• The path to earning a salary as a dentist in Vermont is long. Prospective dentists enroll in one of the American Dental Association's Commission on Dental Accreditation dental schools to work toward a Doctor of Dental Medicine or Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. While no Vermont schools have received accreditation by the Commission, the state is home to one accredited residency program, Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, where degree candidates may work toward their licensing.
  
  

Outlook

• A 15 percent growth rate in employment of dentists throughout the country is expected to add 18,400 jobs by 2018, according to the BLS. The BLS anticipates increased demand for dentists' services in part due to an aging population's requirement for dental care as well as heightened access to dental health insurance coverage for the general population.