Nearly 122,000 general dentists were employed in the U.S. as of May 2024 according to data released earlier this year by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Per BLS data, just over 7,790 of those employed general dentists worked in the seven-state Great Plains region of the country. Although home to three states ranked among the ten best in the nation for general dentist annual mean wages, on the whole the region was a subpar one in terms of pay, as nearly 64% of the region's dentists lived in states where the annual mean wage for general dentists was below the national average. A closer examination of May 2024 BLS data details the following about general dentist pay in the Great Plains region:
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| General Dentist Pay in the Great Plains Region |
| State | # Employed | Annual Mean Wages | Wage Rank* |
| IA | 850 | $216,520 | 6th |
| KS | 1,240 | $172,120 | 38th |
| MN | 2,500 | $224,700 | 3rd |
| MO | 1,980 | N/A | N/A |
| NE | 740 | $185,360 | 26th |
| ND | 210 | $224,300 | 4th |
| SD | 270 | $166,690 | 40th |
| U.S. | 121,940 | $188,952 | ------- |
(*) annual mean wage ranking among the 50 states
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data extracted on October 24, 2025
