Dentist
124,105 active US providers register Dentist as their primary taxonomy. That is 1.3% of every provider in the registry, and the 20th largest of 584 specialties with a page here.
- Taxonomy code
- 122300000X
- Grouping
- Dental Providers
- Classification
- Dentist
- Active providers
- 124,105
- States covered
- 51 of 51
What the code means
A dentist is a person qualified by a doctorate in dental surgery (D.D.S.) or dental medicine (D.M.D.), licensed by the state to practice dentistry, and practicing within the scope of that license. There is no difference between the two degrees: dentists who have a DMD or DDS have the same education. Universities have the prerogative to determine what degree is awarded. Both degrees use the same curriculum requirements set by the American Dental Association's Commission on Dental Accreditation. Generally, three or more years of undergraduate education plus four years of dental school is required to graduate and become a general dentist. State licensing boards accept either degree as equivalent, and both degrees allow licensed individuals to practice the same scope of general dentistry. Additional post-graduate training is required to become a dental specialist.
Definition quoted verbatim from the NUCC Health Care Provider Taxonomy code set, version 25.1. Not paraphrased.
Where they are
Counted by practice location, not by mailing address or by licence state. A provider practising across a state line is counted where they practise.
| State | Providers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| California | 19,525 | |
| Texas | 9,347 | |
| Florida | 8,128 | |
| New York | 7,535 | |
| Illinois | 5,984 | |
| Michigan | 4,445 | |
| Pennsylvania | 4,212 | |
| Massachusetts | 3,830 | |
| Washington | 3,708 | |
| New Jersey | 3,600 | |
| Ohio | 3,579 | |
| Virginia | 3,172 | |
| North Carolina | 3,150 | |
| Georgia | 2,677 | |
| Arizona | 2,653 |
Showing the 15 largest of 51 states with at least one.
Who registers under this code
93,963 of these are people and 30,142 are organisations, so 24% of the code is businesses rather than clinicians. Half of them had registered by 2011, and 21,926 registered in the last five years, 18% of the current population.
That is close to the pace of the registry as a whole.
Where the practices are
By practice-location city. City counts are noisier than state counts, because a large employer files one address for many providers.
- CHICAGO, IL1,539
- NEW YORK, NY1,401
- HOUSTON, TX1,282
- LOS ANGELES, CA1,184
- BROOKLYN, NY903
- BOSTON, MA804
- SAN ANTONIO, TX733
- SAN DIEGO, CA709
- LAS VEGAS, NV659
- MIAMI, FL643
What else they list
Providers whose primary code is Dentist most often carry these secondary taxonomies as well. This is the closest thing the registry has to a map of which specialties overlap in practice, and it is not published anywhere else.
| Also listed | Providers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| General Practice Dentistry | 4,957 | 4.0% |
| Student in an Organized Health Care Education/Training Program | 3,724 | 3.0% |
| Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics Dentistry | 526 | 0.4% |
| Pediatric Dentistry | 481 | 0.4% |
| Periodontics | 476 | 0.4% |
| Customized Equipment (DME) | 445 | 0.4% |
| Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (Dentist) | 432 | 0.3% |
| Endodontics | 392 | 0.3% |
Nearby specialties
Other taxonomies NUCC files under Dentist.
- General Practice Dentistry179,989
- Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics Dentistry21,241
- Pediatric Dentistry17,480
- Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (Dentist)12,884
- Endodontics9,326
- Periodontics8,809
Looking up a specific provider
These counts come from the monthly NPPES file. To check one provider, use their NPI: the lookup reads the live registry and shows whether the identifier is still active, which the monthly file cannot tell you about the last few weeks.
Counts from npidata_pfile_20050523-20260712.csv, built 2026-08-09. Primary taxonomy only, deactivated identifiers excluded.