Dental Hygienist Statistics 2026: Job Market, Pay, Demand & Workforce

DentistryHires had 3,445 open dental hygienist listings from 1,760 employers on October 9, 2026.

862 were first posted in the previous 14 days and 2,579 in the previous 30 days.

At least 42.8% of dental hygienist listings were part-time on October 9, 2026.

Listings that name no schedule are counted as full-time, so the real part-time share is likely higher.

The benefit dental hygienist listings named most often on October 9, 2026 was paid time off, in 72.6% of listings, followed by health insurance (62%).

A listing that does not mention a benefit may still offer it.

To browse the openings themselves, see all dental hygienist listings.

The median dental hygienist wage was $98,100 a year in May 2025, and the middle half earned $83,570 to $108,480 (BLS OEWS, SOC 29-1292, May 2025).

Employers hiring dental hygienists on DentistryHires advertise a median of $52.50 an hour across 1,125 employers on October 9, 2026; this is advertised pay, not earnings.

For pay by state, percentile and experience, see the dental hygienist salary guide, and for the full distribution of posted pay see our quarterly dental hygienist pay data release.

California had the most open dental hygienist listings on October 9, 2026, with 289 (8.4% of the national total).

Florida followed with 210 (6.1%).

To browse the openings in one state, start with dental hygienist openings in California.

1,760 employers had open dental hygienist listings on DentistryHires on October 9, 2026, and the five largest posted 30.8% of them.

1,571 employers (89.3%) had exactly one open dental hygienist listing.

BLS projects dental hygienist employment to grow 8.0% from 2025 to 2035, from about 225,300 to 243,200 jobs, against 3.5% for all occupations (BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35).

BLS expects about 15,000 dental hygienist job openings a year on average from 2025 to 2035, most of them to replace hygienists who retire or leave the occupation (BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35).

Dental offices employed 211,560 dental hygienists in May 2025, 20.1% of all jobs in the industry and its second-largest occupation after dental assistants (BLS OEWS, NAICS 621200).

Only 60% of dentists say they have an adequate number of dental hygienists on staff, according to an April 2026 ADA Health Policy Institute analysis.

Among dentists recruiting or recently recruiting a dental hygienist, 91% called it very or extremely challenging (ADA Health Policy Institute, April 2026).

There are 355 CODA-accredited dental hygiene programs in the United States (CODA program directory, September 2026).

For what the hygienist hiring squeeze means for practices, see our hiring analysis.

For how to enter the field, see the dental hygienist career guide.

Listing figures are computed from every active, paid dental hygienist listing on DentistryHires at the time shown, and refreshed every six hours.

Listings on a job board are not a random sample of all dental hygienist jobs, so read them as a picture of current hiring, not of total employment.

Advertised pay is the midpoint of the range an employer posts, or its single figure, and hourly and annual postings are never converted into each other.

The headline is the employer median: each employer’s own median, then the median across employers, so a group posting hundreds of openings counts once.

A pay figure needs at least 30 listings from 10 employers and is withheld when one employer posted more than half of them.

Federal figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the ADA Health Policy Institute and are quoted as published, with the year in each sentence.