Dentist salary in Missouri: what the data shows

The most direct public source for Missouri dentist wages is the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program. The data year used here is May 2025. This post gives the Missouri figures, compares them with the national figures and explains what the numbers leave out.

What is a dentist’s salary in Missouri?

For general dentists in Missouri, BLS reports an annual median wage of $204,960 and an annual mean wage of $241,580 in May 2025. The state table counts 2,440 general dentists. It also lists an hourly mean wage of $116.15 and an hourly median of $98.54.

The median is the middle wage. Half of general dentists earned more and half earned less. The mean is the average, and it sits above the median here, which fits a pattern where some high earners lift the average.

Both rows come from the OEWS tables, “Dentists, General (29-1021).” The Missouri median is about $34,000 above the national median in the table. The data does not say why.

How reliable is the Missouri estimate?

The OEWS table reports a relative standard error with each estimate. For Missouri general dentists, the wage estimate has a relative standard error of 8.6 percent, and the employment estimate has 11.8 percent. A relative standard error is a statistics measure of how much a sample-based estimate may differ from the true value. Higher numbers mean more uncertainty.

For comparison, the national wage estimate for general dentists has a relative standard error of 1.3 percent. The Missouri figure is a good guide to the order of magnitude. It is not exact to the dollar.

Who is left out of the BLS number?

The BLS wage data does not include self-employed workers. The Occupational Outlook Handbook states that its pay tab “does not include pay for self-employed workers” because the OEWS survey does not collect it. Nationally, about 12 percent of dentist jobs are held by self-employed dentists, according to the same page.

This matters in Missouri as well. A dentist who owns a practice may be missing from the table. The result is a view of employed general dentists, not of every dentist in the state.

What does the ADA add?

The ADA Health Policy Institute reports national figures from its Survey of Dental Practice. It puts the average income for general practitioner dentists at $215,320 in 2025. The sources used here do not give a Missouri-only ADA figure.

The two measures do not match, and they should not be swapped. BLS reports wages. HPI reports net income for dentists in private practice. For a side-by-side look, read how much a dentist makes.

What else shapes a dentist’s pay?

BLS says wages vary with location, hours worked, specialty and years in practice. Other factors that the sources do not quantify include whether the dentist owns the practice and how the pay is structured. Two common structures are production-based pay and collections-based pay. The associate dentist entry explains the role of a non-owner dentist.

• Production-based pay ties pay to the value of care delivered.
• Collections-based pay ties pay to money actually collected.
• Contracts spell out which structure applies and how it is calculated.

The post on associate compensation models covers these in more depth.

How should a reader use this data?

Use the figures as context, not as a target. A reader weighing an offer should ask what the pay structure is, what the contract says and how the number was calculated. This post gives no recommended salary. Contract terms, taxes and employment status are questions for an attorney and a CPA.

For owners, the picture differs because profit and pay mix. See how much dental practice owners make.

What does the job market look like?

The BLS reports that 78 percent of dentist jobs nationally are in offices of dentists and 12 percent are self-employed. It projects 6 percent growth in dentist employment from 2025 to 2035 and about 4,800 openings a year nationally. The handbook does not give a Missouri projection on the page used here.

The same handbook lists median wages by industry in May 2025: $173,760 in offices of dentists, $195,330 in outpatient care centers and $172,980 in offices of physicians. These are national figures. They show that the setting where a dentist works is one more reason the numbers differ.

What questions help when reading a Missouri offer?

A wage table cannot answer these. They belong to the offer in front of the reader.

1. Is the pay a salary, a percentage of production or a percentage of collections?
2. How are lab fees and supplies handled in the calculation?
3. How many days and hours are expected each week?
4. What do benefits, malpractice coverage and continuing education cost or provide?
5. What restrictions apply after the job ends?

An attorney should review any employment agreement before signing. The post on dentist employment agreement provisions lists terms to look for.

Next step

The dental practice ownership guide covers associates, ownership and the money questions around both. To talk about practice management and finance, contact Dr. Copeland about consulting. Dr. Jon Copeland, DDS, is a general dentist in Wildwood, Missouri.