Pediatric Dentist Salary in 2026: How Much Does a Pediatric Dentist Make?
How much does a pediatric dentist make? The median pediatric dentist in private practice earned $245,300 in net income in 2025, according to the American Dental Association's Health Policy Institute (HPI), the only source that surveys pediatric dentists as their own group. The middle half earned between $186,720 and $381,410, and the average was $328,500. The federal government publishes no pediatric-specific salary.
1st quartile
$186,720
Median
$245,300
Average (mean)
$328,500
3rd quartile
$381,410
American Dental Association, Health Policy Institute — 2026 Survey of Dental Practice (2025 data), Table 3: annual net income of pediatric dentists in private practice, 2025 (n=70; weighted; standard error $31,310; not inflation-adjusted), and Table 4 median series. Survey fielded January–February 2026 to 59,951 private-practice dentists, 1,113 responses. BLS groups pediatric dentists into "Dentists, All Other Specialists" (SOC 29-1029, median $224,990, May 2025) and publishes no pediatric-specific figure. Source of record: docs/salary-surveys-2025-2026.md and docs/oews-2025-industry-621200.md.
Pediatric Dentist Compensation Structure
Compensation for pediatric dentistsvaries significantly by employment type. Here's how the most common structures break down:
ADA HPI median net income, 2025
Pediatric dentists in private practice, 2025 income, 70 responses (Table 3). The quartiles run from $186,720 (1st) to $381,410 (3rd); the mean is $328,500 — a long upper tail pulls the average well above the median.
$245,300 / yr
Seven-year median series
ADA HPI medians for pediatric dentists: 2019 $243,070 · 2020 $199,920 · 2021 $287,060 · 2022 $249,200 · 2023 $259,910 · 2024 $244,590 · 2025 $245,300 (Table 4). Not inflation-adjusted.
$199,920 → $287,060 → $245,300
Versus all specialist owners
ADA HPI 2025 median net income for specialist practice owners of every kind, all specialties pooled (n=157) — not a pediatric owner figure; general practitioners overall $185,010 (Table 1). Pediatric dentistry sits near the specialist median.
$259,550 median
BLS grouped figure
SOC 29-1029 "Dentists, All Other Specialists", May 2025 — a wage estimate covering pediatric dentists, endodontists, periodontists and others together, so it is context, not a pediatric figure.
$224,990 / yr
Pediatric Dentist Pay Range: Quartiles and Average
HPI publishes four figures for pediatric dentists' 2025 income: the first quartile, the median, the third quartile and the mean. It publishes no 10th or 90th percentile, so the range stops at the quartiles.
All four are annual net income in private practice from the 2026 Survey of Dental Practice (70 pediatric respondents, weighted), not a posted salary or base wage. They are not adjusted for inflation.
Median or average? The mean sits well above the median, which means a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. The median is the better guide to a typical pediatric dentist's income.
How precise is it? Seventy pediatric dentists answered, and the 2025 median carries a standard error of $31,310. Read the figures as a band, not an exact number.
No experience breakdown. HPI doesn't publish pediatric dentist income by years in practice, age or ownership, so there is no official starting or senior figure. The quartiles spread across all respondents; they are not experience tiers.
Pediatric Dentist Income by Year, 2019–2025
HPI's median net income for pediatric dentists was $243,070 in 2019, $199,920 in 2020, $287,060 in 2021, $249,200 in 2022, $259,910 in 2023, $244,590 in 2024 and $245,300 in 2025 (Table 4, not inflation-adjusted).
The 2020 low coincides with the first pandemic year. Since 2022 the median has stayed between $244,590 and $259,910. With a sample this small, part of any year-to-year swing is noise, so the multi-year band is a better guide than a single year.
Where Do Pediatric Dentists Work, and How Are They Paid?
The HPI figures describe one setting: private practice. That covers solo and group pediatric practices and practices affiliated with a dental support organization (DSO). Pediatric dentists also work in hospitals, dental schools and residency programs, and community health centers and public health programs. Those settings fall outside the survey, and no source on this page gives their pay.
A practice owner or partner earns the practice's profit after staff, rent, supplies and equipment, on top of their own clinical work, and carries the risk of running a business. An associate dentist, employed without an ownership stake, is usually paid a salary, a daily rate or a percentage of production or collections, sometimes with a bonus tied to production. How associate dentists are paid covers each model.
HPI doesn't split pediatric dentist income by owner and associate. The closest figure it publishes pools specialist practice owners of every kind: a 2025 median of $259,550 (157 respondents), which is an all-specialist number, not a pediatric one. Owning vs. associating and DSO vs. private practice weigh the choice.
In public health settings, federal loan repayment can add to the package: in its 2026 cycle, NHSC loan repayment paid general and pediatric dentists up to $50,000 for two years of full-time service at an approved site in a dental shortage area.
Pediatric Dentist Pay by State: Why There's No Table
This page has no state-by-state table because no reliable source publishes one. HPI reports pediatric dentist income for the nation as a whole, and BLS folds pediatric dentists into its grouped specialist category instead of publishing a pediatric series. A pediatric dentist salary for California or any other single state doesn't come from either source.
Location still matters. Pay can vary with local cost of living and with how many practices compete for patients, so a higher offer in an expensive metro can buy less than a lower one where housing is cheaper. Weigh any offer against living costs where you'd work. For general dentists, BLS does publish state figures: see dentist salary.
Becoming a Pediatric Dentist: Residency Before Specialist Pay
Specialist pay starts only after extra training. You first become a dentist through four years of dental school for a DDS or DMD, then complete a pediatric dentistry residency accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA). CODA's standard sets a minimum of 24 months of full-time formal training: a floor, not a typical length.
No source this site uses publishes resident stipends, so this page doesn't estimate them; ask each program. Residencies are typically entered through the Postdoctoral Dental Matching Program (see how competitive pediatric dentistry residency is). The full path is in how to become a pediatric dentist and pediatric dentistry residency.
Pediatric Dentist Pay vs. Orthodontists, Oral Surgeons and General Dentists
The sources differ, so compare with care. The oral surgeon, orthodontist and general dentist rows are BLS wage medians for employed dentists (OEWS, May 2025), which leave out self-employed owners. The pediatric row is HPI's survey of private-practice net income, which includes owners. BLS publishes no pediatric figure on the same basis.
On these figures pediatric dentists sit above general dentists and below orthodontists and oral surgeons at the median. HPI's own survey, which measures both groups the same way, also puts pediatric dentists ahead of general practitioners: $245,300 against $185,010 in 2025. BLS's grouped "Dentists, All Other Specialists" category (SOC 29-1029), which includes pediatric dentists with endodontists and periodontists, had a May 2025 median of $224,990.
For the full ranking, see which dental specialty pays the most; for how the two jobs differ day to day, pediatric dentist vs. general dentist.
What Affects Pediatric Dentist Salary?
These are the main factors behind where a pediatric dentist lands in the range.
Ownership. Owners and partners add practice profit to clinical pay; associates are paid a salary, a daily rate or a share of production.
Practice type. Private pediatric practices, DSO-affiliated groups, hospitals, dental schools and public health clinics pay differently, and only private practice is measured here.
Patient volume. Production-based pay and practice profit both rise with how many children a dentist treats and the care they need.
Location and cost of living. No source publishes pediatric pay by state or metro, so judge an offer against local living costs.
Experience. A patient base builds over a career, but HPI publishes no pediatric figures by experience, so the effect isn't measured.
For current openings, browse pediatric dentist jobs. Practices setting pay for an opening can see what to pay a pediatric dentist.
Income figures are ADA HPI survey and BLS estimates for general information only; actual pay varies by ownership, setting, location and experience. This is general information, not legal or medical advice; have an attorney review any employment or partnership contract before you sign.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is pediatric dentistry a good career?
On income, the survey data is favorable.
The ADA Health Policy Institute's 2025 median for pediatric dentists in private practice was $245,300, against $185,010 for general practitioners in the same survey, and the pediatric median has stayed between $244,590 and $259,910 every year since 2022.
The trade-off is training: a CODA-accredited residency of at least 24 months after dental school.
Whether it's worth it also depends on how much you want to care for children, which no salary figure measures.
What is the highest salary for a pediatric dentist?
HPI doesn't publish a maximum or a 90th percentile.
The highest figure it reports is the third quartile: in 2025, a quarter of pediatric dentists in private practice had net income above $381,410.
The mean, $328,500, sits well above the $245,300 median, which shows a group of high earners at the top of the range.
Which type of dentist earns the most money?
Among the dental occupations BLS tracks, oral and maxillofacial surgeons earn the most, with a national median wage of $352,220, ahead of orthodontists at $289,140 and general dentists at $170,950 (OEWS, May 2025).
BLS has no separate pediatric dentist figure.
HPI's 2025 median for pediatric dentists, $245,300, is net income from a different survey, so it doesn't slot exactly into the BLS ranking.
Is the ADA figure a salary or net income?
It's net income.
The HPI Survey of Dental Practice covers dentists in private practice, owners included, and reports their annual net income, not a posted salary or base wage.
It isn't adjusted for inflation.
BLS wage estimates work differently: they cover employed workers and leave out self-employed owners, which is one reason the two sources' figures don't line up.