Here are 10 headlines and statistics on the state of dentistry in California in 2024:
- A California dentist was ordered to pay back $100,000 in retirement money taken from employees.
- California was ranked as the 41st best state for dental health, according to personal finance website WalletHub.
- A California dentist and his former billing manager were sentenced for Medicare fraud.
- Two dental practices in San Luis Obispo were destroyed by a fire that the department is calling "suspicious".
- James Rolfe, DDS, extended the operating hours of his dental urgent care center in Santa Barbara and is the only dental urgent care center in the city to offer care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- There are 30,280 total dentists in California, the most out of all 50 states, according to the American Dental Association.
- Dental hygienists in California make $111,580 and dental assistants earn $48,990, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- The average cost to visit an oral surgeon in California is between $90 to $135.
- California has 518 dental professional shortage areas, the most out of any state.
- There are seven dental schools in the state: California Northstate University College of Dental Medicine in Elk Grove, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC in Los Angeles, Loma Linda University School of Dentistry, University of California at Los Angeles School of Dentistry, University of California at San Francisco School of Dentistry, University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco, and Western University of Health Sciences College of Dental Medicine in Pomona.