The GoTu State of Work Report is back for its third year, and the data is the most comprehensive we’ve ever produced. 7,914 dental professionals responded. Three professions. Six key topics. And for the first time, three years of trend data that lets us see not just what’s happening, but what’s been happening all along.
The patterns that emerged are hard to ignore.
The Workforce Is Committed
82.8% of respondents expect to still be working in dentistry ten years from now. That number is remarkable given everything else in the data: elevated burnout, widespread pay dissatisfaction, frustration with limited clinical autonomy. Dental professionals believe in the work. What they’re asking for is a profession that meets them halfway.
Three years of data now confirm that it largely hasn’t.
Compensation is Still an Issue
59% of respondents received no pay raise in the past year. 74.7% receive no bonus of any kind. 44.7% have zero benefits. Better pay has ranked as the number one desired improvement every year this report has run, and this year it won by a 20-point margin over the second item.
This is not a surprise finding. It’s a pattern the industry keeps choosing not to fix.
The numbers vary by role. Dental hygienists, who make up the largest segment of respondents, most commonly earn $51 to $60 per hour. Dental assistants are concentrated between $21 and $30. But the frustration cuts across both groups, and the structural gaps are the same: stagnant wages, rare raises, bonuses that barely exist, and a benefits picture where only 25.3% have employer-provided health insurance.
More Than Half Are Burned Out
54.1% of all respondents report experiencing burnout. Among hygienists, that number climbs to 60.6%. And among those experiencing it, 80% say it affects them on a recurring basis, sometimes, often, or always.
The top drivers are workload (65.7%) and toxic office culture (62.4%). Neither can be solved at the individual level. You cannot meditate your way out of an unsustainable patient load.
The consequences are showing up in career decisions: 51.7% of burned-out respondents have changed offices because of burnout. 49.3% have considered leaving the field. 43.4% have reduced their hours. This is not a wave of dramatic exits. It is attrition in slow motion, playing out in quiet retreats and reduced engagement from professionals who stayed but have less to give.
The 3-5 Year Cliff is Real
64% of dental professionals say their longest tenure at a single practice is five years or less. The 3-to-5 year cohort is the single largest group at 31.6%. We call it the 3-to-5-year cliff, and it shows up when you hold career stage data, burnout data, and mobility data next to each other and notice what they all have in common.
It is the moment when initial enthusiasm meets accumulated reality. The workload has not let up, the compensation has not moved, and the office culture turned out to be harder to navigate than the clinical work ever was. At some point in that third, fourth, or fifth year, a decision gets made.
Culture is the most striking variable in the departure data. It ranks fifth as a reason professionals stay, but first as a reason they leave. It is not something people are actively seeking out. It is something they notice when it goes wrong.
The 3-5 Year Cliff is Real
64% of dental professionals say their longest tenure at a single practice is five years or less. The 3-to-5 year cohort is the single largest group at 31.6%. We call it the 3-to-5-year cliff, and it shows up when you hold career stage data, burnout data, and mobility data next to each other and notice what they all have in common.
It is the moment when initial enthusiasm meets accumulated reality. The workload has not let up, the compensation has not moved, and the office culture turned out to be harder to navigate than the clinical work ever was. At some point in that third, fourth, or fifth year, a decision gets made.
Culture is the most striking variable in the departure data. It ranks fifth as a reason professionals stay, but first as a reason they leave. It is not something people are actively seeking out. It is something they notice when it goes wrong.
What Three Years of Data Actually Shows
What began in 2024 as a focused survey of registered dental hygienists has become the largest ongoing study of the U.S. dental workforce. The evolution in scope reflects what the industry needed: not a single snapshot, but a sustained look at what is actually changing.
What is changing: office-switching has accelerated. Temp work has shifted from fallback to strategy. The survey itself has grown from hundreds of respondents to nearly 8,000. And in 2026, for the first time, associate dentists are included alongside hygienists and assistants.
What is not changing: compensation dissatisfaction, burnout rates, and the structural conditions driving both.
The dental workforce is resilient and largely still committed. What 7,914 voices are collectively asking for is conditions that make staying sustainable.
The full 2026 State of Work Report is available now. Read it at sow.gotu.com.
