No federal wage series and no ADA survey figure isolates oral pathologists: the Bureau of Labor Statistics has no wage series for the specialty, and the ADA's income survey published no oral-pathology figure for 2025.
The best national benchmark is grouped: Dentists, all other specialists — the category holding every dental specialty without its own code — had a median of $224,990 a year ($108.17 an hour) in BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Here is what that proxy does and doesn't cover, plus setting, state, hourly and residency figures.
National oral pathologist pay: what is actually published
Oral and maxillofacial pathology is one of the 12 dental specialties recognized by the National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards, and its defined practice "includes research and diagnosis of diseases using clinical, radiographic, microscopic, biochemical, or other examinations."
The role and training path are covered in the oral pathologist career guide; this page is about pay.
The pay data starts with a gap.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes separate national wage series for only four dentist groups — general dentists, oral and maxillofacial surgeons, orthodontists and prosthodontists — and counts oral pathologists in one catch-all occupation, "Dentists, all other specialists" (SOC 29-1029).
The latest BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) estimates are for May 2025, released May 15, 2026.
In that grouped category, the median wage was $224,990 a year ($108.17 an hour), the mean was $247,930, and the category covered 5,230 jobs.
| Percentile | Annual pay, grouped specialists (29-1029) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $104,120 |
| 25th | $166,130 |
| Median (50th) | $224,990 |
| 75th | $280,590 |
| 90th | $402,700 |
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 national estimates, "Dentists, all other specialists" (29-1029).
Treat the median as a benchmark for the group, not an oral pathologist salary.
BLS does not list which specialties sit inside 29-1029, and a large share of this category works for the federal government: 2,220 of the 5,230 jobs are in the federal executive branch, where the median was $232,980, versus 2,570 jobs in offices of dentists at $224,990.
Two measurement notes shape how you read every number on this page.
OEWS wage figures are straight-time gross pay: production bonuses, commissions and incentive pay are included, while overtime, non-production bonuses, year-end bonuses, profit-sharing and employer benefit costs are not.
And OEWS excludes the self-employed and the owners and partners in unincorporated firms, so an owner's practice profit never appears in these figures.
The American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute measures something different: net income, a dentist's personal income after practice expenses and before personal income taxes.
For 2025 data it reported a median of $258,880 for all specialists in private practice ($259,550 for owner specialists), with no employed-specialist figure published for too few responses — and no oral-pathology-specific figure at all.
There is no pathologist-specific number on either the federal or the survey side to pair with the grouped proxy.
For how the specialties BLS does track compare — and why several share one figure — see the specialty pay ranking, and the cross-role view in the dental specialties.
Every pay figure on this page is a proxy
Hourly, monthly and yearly equivalents
BLS publishes the hourly figures directly: the grouped category's median is $108.17 an hour, with the 10th percentile at $50.06 and the 90th at $193.61.
On the annual side, OEWS assumes a full-time, year-round schedule of 2,080 hours — annual = hourly × 2,080.
Dividing the $224,990 annual median for reference gives about $18,749 a month (÷12) or about $4,327 a week (÷52).
Those are arithmetic conversions of one published number, not separate measurements.
The hourly percentile spread — $50.06 to $193.61 — describes the whole grouped category across all its specialties and settings.
It is the distribution of the proxy, not a pay range an individual oral pathologist moves through.
Measured vs. derived
Pay by setting: private practice, government, clinical and academic
The industry tables behind the grouped category are the closest published answer to what setting pays — with the standing caveat that every row covers all the specialties inside 29-1029, not oral pathologists alone.
| Setting, grouped specialists (29-1029) | Median annual pay |
|---|---|
| Offices of dentists | $224,990 (2,570 jobs) |
| Federal executive branch | $232,980 (2,220 jobs) |
| Outpatient care centers | $305,240 |
| Colleges and universities | $132,680 |
| Private sector, all industries (ownership split) | $219,780 (2,810 jobs) |
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 industry and ownership estimates for "Dentists, all other specialists."
Among these published rows, outpatient care centers show the highest median at $305,240 and colleges and universities the lowest at $132,680.
The last row is BLS's ownership split rather than an industry: across all industries, private-sector jobs in the category paid a median of $219,780.
One adjacent academic figure is worth having because it sits on a larger sample: general dentists, who have their own BLS series, working in colleges, universities and professional schools had a median of $168,220 across 430 jobs, against 60 jobs for the grouped specialists in that same industry.
That is a different occupation from the grouped specialists, so keep the two rows separate when you cite them.
The published tables draw no line by corporate form: how a corporate-group (DSO) position pays against an independent practice is not a split these sources provide, and the ownership row above is as close as the federal tables cited here come.
The rows cited on this page include no public-health employer either — the one government row among them is the federal executive branch.
Pay by experience and credential
Neither source on this page breaks pay out by years of experience.
The federal percentiles describe one distribution at one point in time, and the ADA survey publishes one median per group per survey year — so there is no experience ladder for this specialty in the data this page cites.
The one oral-pathology-specific figure in the sources this page uses is a training one.
In the CODA/ADA Health Policy Institute 2025-26 Survey of Advanced Dental Education, the oral and maxillofacial pathology programs that paid a stipend — 10 of the 14 programs — averaged $50,042.
Four programs paid no stipend, so first-year pay depends on the program.
After training, the nearest published comparison in the ADA survey is the ownership split: owner specialists reported a median net income of $259,550 against $258,880 for all specialists in private practice, and no employed-specialist figure was published for 2025.
Experience, certification status and caseload all remain gaps in this data.
On credentials: none of the sources on this page splits pay by board certification, so there is no sourced premium to quote — if certification matters to your negotiation, ask employers directly what it adds to an offer.
Highest-paying states for the grouped specialist category
BLS published a state median for the grouped category in only 19 states in the May 2025 release.
The five highest:
| State | Median annual pay, grouped specialists (29-1029) |
|---|---|
| Texas | $286,510 |
| Oregon | $256,510 |
| Illinois | $250,880 |
| South Carolina | $246,770 |
| Arizona | $244,170 |
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 state estimates for "Dentists, all other specialists."
Read these as grouped-category figures.
Because no BLS series isolates oral pathologists, no state or metro figure does either — the 19 published medians are all for the category, and Oregon's employment count is suppressed in the release.
Oral pathologist jobs on DentistryHires and what they pay
There is no separate oral-pathology job board on DentistryHires, so dentist jobs is the board to search — read each posting's employer type against the setting table above.
On what postings pay: when an employer advertises a range on DentistryHires, the posted figure is the midpoint of that range, and published pay medians are suppressed below 30 listings or 10 employers.
With 14 residency programs in the ADA's survey, this specialty may not clear that bar, so benchmark an offer against the federal and survey figures on this page rather than expecting a specialty-specific posted median — and read a posted range as advertised pay for one opening, not as earnings data.
If you're on the employer side, the counterpart to this page is hiring an oral pathologist.
Quick recap: national pay, academic vs lab vs hospital, by state
National pay.
The grouped category's median is $224,990 a year ($108.17 an hour), with a mean of $247,930 across 5,230 jobs — BLS OEWS, May 2025.
No oral-pathology-specific national figure exists in federal wage data or the ADA survey.
Academic vs lab vs hospital.
No published split separates pay across the specialty's employer types, so no sourced answer compares pay in a biopsy laboratory, a hospital department and a dental school.
The closest published academic lines: $132,680 for grouped specialists in colleges and universities, $168,220 for general dentists in colleges, universities and professional schools, and — across all health fields, not dentistry — a median of $107,310 for postsecondary health specialties teachers, a group for which BLS reports annual wages only.
By state.
Only 19 states have a published median for the grouped category; Texas is highest at $286,510, and no state or metro figure isolates oral pathologists.
Where this fits in the wider pay map: see dental jobs ranked by pay for the full ranked table of dental roles, and periodontist salary for another specialty inside the same grouped code.
This page is career and compensation information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Figures change with each data release — confirm current numbers with BLS's OEWS tables and the ADA's Health Policy Institute before relying on them.