Data Sources

Verified national data: BLS OEWS

Our verified baseline is the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program, reference period May 2024. OEWS is a large semi-annual employer survey and is U.S. public-domain data. We transcribe its published national figures directly and label them Verified · BLS. These cover general dentists (SOC 29-1021), dental hygienists (29-1292), dental assistants (31-9091), orthodontists (29-1023), and oral & maxillofacial surgeons (29-1022).

The BLS top-code

OEWS does not report annual wages above $239,200; it reports “≥ $239,200.” For high-earning specialists like orthodontists and oral surgeons we show this verified floor(displayed as “$239,200+”) rather than invent a specific median. The true figure is higher, and we say so.

Modeled state & metro estimates

BLS publishes local OEWS data, but until we import and verify those specific extracts, our state and metro pages show modeled estimates: the verified national median scaled by a documented labor-cost index for each area. These are clearly labeled and are not official BLS local survey values. We explain the exact method on the methodology page.

What we deliberately do not claim

• No specialist-specific median above the BLS top-code.
• No verified state or metro values until the official local extracts are imported.
• No pages for roles BLS doesn't cleanly track (e.g. prosthodontists, dental billing roles).
• No employer pay data, no job listings, and no fabricated figures of any kind.

User-submitted data

Dental professionals can contribute pay anonymously on the submit your salary page. Individual submissions are never published; figures would appear only as de-identified aggregates above a sample-size threshold, clearly labeled as community data.

For the full technical detail, see methodology. For how we label and review everything, see our editorial policy.