Number of Dentists in France: 50,500 Dentists in 2026

Key figures at a glance#

The right answer depends on your question. For people to reach, use 50,472 dentists. For purchasing decision-makers, use 35,851 practice owners or partners (41,632 self-employed dentists in total). For delivery points or sales visits, use about 21,400 offices and 1,454 health centers. For accounts listed in the business register, use 51,568 entries by SIRET number (the French ID of a business location). These figures are not interchangeable: the rest of the study explains what each counts.

To keep the denominators separate, the study counts in three units, and each level states its unit:

• people: the 50,472 dentists in the register (levels 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7);
• addresses: about 23,800 practice addresses, including about 21,400 offices (levels 4 and 7);
• registered locations: 49,927 locations, grouped by company, brand name or website (level 6 and networks).

Which figure should you use for your market?#

The right denominator depends on what you sell.

Then combine profession, practice type, practice size, network and region. An office with six or more dentists has a different point of contact from a solo dentist. Groupe VYV has 131 locations under one brand name, operated by several regional groups of mutual insurers: approach each regional group separately; approach self-employed general dentists office by office.

Why the number of dentists varies by source#

DREES is the French Health Ministry's Direction de la recherche, des études, de l'évaluation et des statistiques. It counts 48,690 dentists as of January 1, 2026, versus 47,636 a year earlier, an increase of 2.2%. The Ordre reports 49,913 practitioners "in practice" in 2025, without an exact date or a written counting rule.

Our count comes from the RPPS register, where every health professional is registered. The Agence du numérique en santé (France's digital health agency) publishes a copy every day on data.gouv.fr. As of November 5, 2026, 50,472 dentists report an activity there, students excluded (details in Level 1).

In practice: about 50,000 dentists practice in France in late 2026. The gap between the DREES figure (48,690) and our count (50,472) is less than 4%. For a prospect list, we use the register's broader definition: a dentist with a professional activity on record is a dentist to contact.

What other sources say, and the projections

• DREES: 48,690 practicing dentists as of January 1, 2026 (48,700 in its press release), compared with 47,636 a year earlier and 40,488 in 2012, an increase of 20% over fourteen years.
• Ordre national des chirurgiens-dentistes: 49,913 practitioners in practice in 2025 (Rapport d'activité, July 2026).
• MACSF: a mutual insurer for health professionals, it reports 48,386 dentists "in practice" on March 11, 2025, including mainland and overseas France, compared with DREES's 47,600 as of January 1, 2025. It lists its sources together, including the Ordre, without saying which one supplies this total. DREES alone publishes both its date and its counting rule for all dentists: its figures are the ones to cite, with their date.
• Sénat: 49,156 practicing dentists as of September 25, 2025.
• RPPS register, our count: 50,472 practitioners reporting at least one activity as of November 5, 2026, excluding students.
• Sirene, code 86.23Z: 51,568 open locations as of October 1, 2026. These are register entries, not people or offices.
• Assurance maladie: 37,043 self-employed dentists covered by the national health insurance agreement as of December 31, 2024.
• Scope: for 2021, a DREES study counts 42,000 practicing dentists under age 70. This scope excludes practitioners aged 70 and older: comparing those 42,000 with the 48,700 of 2026 would mix two scopes.
• Projection: in March 2021, DREES projected a 39% increase in standardized density between 2021 and 2050. This density accounts for the population's care needs, which vary with age. The calculation assumes unchanged behavior and legislation, and without the arrival of foreign-trained graduates, this density would stagnate.

Level 1. The population: 64,978 registered, 50,472 in practice#

The first level moves from everyone in the register to dentists in practice: of 64,978 registered dentists, 53,557 have at least one professional activity on record; once 3,085 students authorized to fill in for practicing dentists are removed, 50,472 dentists in practice remain, the reference for reaching people.

Level 2. The profession: general dentists and specialists#

In the register of November 5, 2026, 47,551 dentists have no specialty, or 94.2%. The others include 2,503 specialists in orthodontics (dentofacial orthopedics), 280 in oral surgery and 138 in oral medicine.

For those who sell to dentists, the self-employed share matters as much as the headcount:

Orthodontists are an office-based market: nearly 9 in 10 are self-employed. Oral medicine is the reverse: 100 of the 138 dentists in this specialty are salaried.

The specialty in the register does not tell you what an office offers. Public online booking pages list procedures. Of the 17,678 dentists who list theirs, 57% offer implants, nearly half (49.5%) whitening or veneers, 39% gum care, 26% orthodontics, 18% children's dentistry and 15% emergency care. These figures date from November 2, 2026.

The message for a seller is clear. Implants (57%) and cosmetic dentistry (49.5%) are listed by about half of the dentists who detail their procedures: a manufacturer of implants or whitening products finds its market among general dentists, as well as specialists. Orthodontics is listed by 26% of dentists who detail their procedures, while 6% of dentists on these pages are orthodontists: dentists outside the specialty also offer orthodontic treatment. These dentists are more likely to be based in Île-de-France than dentists overall (34% versus 21%): these shares describe the dentists on these pages, not all dentists.

In practice: use the registered specialty to target an orthodontist; use the listed procedure to target your offer.

Level 3. Practice type: self-employed, salaried or both#

The register counts 37,623 dentists who are only self-employed (74.5%), 4,009 who are both self-employed and salaried (7.9%), 8,762 who are only salaried (17.4%) and 78 with no practice type reported.

As of January 1, 2026, DREES counts 82.3% as self-employed, including mixed practice: 60% of dentists work in a group office or practice company, 21% in a solo office and 16% in a health center. The number of salaried dentists in health centers rose from 2,800 in early 2012 to 7,600 in early 2026.

In practice: 41,632 out of 50,472 dentists are self-employed, and 35,851 of them own their office or are partners in their practice company: they make the purchases. Among the other self-employed dentists, 5,304 are associates and 369 temporary substitutes in another dentist's office; 108 have another or unreported role. A salaried dentist does not choose their equipment: their employer does it for them.

Level 4. The setting: offices, health centers, hospitals#

Grouping the register's activities by address gives about 23,800 practice addresses, including 21,429 offices: addresses where at least one self-employed dentist practices. Health centers are additional: 1,454 centers, where 8,315 dentists practice.

10,331 offices, or 48%, have only one dentist. In total, 11,098 offices, or 51.8%, have at least two. This is consistent with the IGAS and IGF estimate (2025) of about 20,000 self-employed dental offices (from 17,000 to 25,000 depending on the assumptions).

Only 9,826 of these office addresses, or 46%, have a SIRET number in the register: to match the others to the business register, you need the dentist's name.

The online booking pages offer another view of office size. Dentists who take appointments there practice at 11,059 office addresses: 5,621 have only one of these dentists, 5,438 have two or more, including 1,002 with six or more. At least 77% of these dentists work in an office with several practitioners: partners without a booking page are not captured.

Practice addresses by type of setting

Type of setting (RPPS register, November 5, 2026)	Addresses	Dentists practicing there
Offices (solo, group, practice companies)	21,429	43,713
Health centers	1,632	11,389
Public hospitals	312	2,131
Universities	22	684
Other settings	409	696

A dentist practicing in two locations counts in both: the last column cannot be added up. For health centers, the 1,632 addresses and 11,389 dentists also include centers with no SIRET number in the register; the figure of 1,454 centers and 8,315 dentists includes only those with one.

Level 5. Who decides: the dentist, the practice or the employer?#

This is the level that matters most to a sales team. A dentist who owns their office or is a partner in their practice company decides on purchases; an associate or temporary substitute works in another dentist's office, and that dentist buys. A salaried dentist does not decide: their employer buys for them. In plain terms: 41,632 dentists are self-employed (including 4,009 who are also salaried elsewhere); 35,851 are owners or partners and decide on their practice's purchases.

Chart data

Who decides (RPPS register, November 5, 2026)	Dentists
Self-employed, alone at their address	9,176
Self-employed, in an office with 2 to 5 dentists	23,396
Self-employed, in a location with 6 or more dentists	4,458
Self-employed, with no address in the register	593
Employer: health center	8,943
Employer: public hospital	1,610
Employer: university	432
Other employers (office, other employer, private facility, health and social care, volunteer work or blank practice type)	1,864

The chart assigns the 4,009 mixed-practice dentists to their employer. The "health center" bar (8,943) counts salaried dentists in a location classified as a health center, including centers with no SIRET number.

Dentists who are only self-employed, by practice setting. Of the 37,623 dentists who are only self-employed, 32,408 are owners or partners; the others are associates (4,827), temporary substitutes (324) or have another or unreported role (64). 9,176 practice alone at their address, 23,396 in an office with 2 to 5 dentists and 4,458 in a location with 6 or more dentists. 593 have no address in the register. In a group office, purchases are often a joint decision: the address record matters as much as the dentist's record.

Practice companies. In the register, 11,531 companies bring together 21,584 of the 41,632 self-employed or mixed-practice dentists; the other 20,048 have no practice entity in the register. 369 companies have six or more dentists, bringing together 2,861 dentists: these are the large self-employed accounts to target for major equipment.

Salaried dentists depend on an employer. The 12,771 salaried or mixed-practice dentists depend on 2,686 employers. 1,259 employers have only one dentist; 448 employ 10 or more. The top 10 employers account for 1,456 dentists, or 11.4% of salaried or mixed-practice dentists. Public hospitals employ 1,610.

Health centers. The register lists dentists in 1,454 health centers (counted by SIRET number), where 8,315 dentists practice. The median center has 6 dentists, and 346 have 10 or more. 969 centers have only dentists and dental assistants in the register.

These 1,454 centers are run by 1,055 operators. 960 run only one, 62 run 2 to 4, 20 run 5 to 9, and 13 run 10 or more. 494 centers belong to an operator with 2 or more centers. The 33 operators with 5 or more centers run 332 centers and employ 1,753 dentists there.

The Fédération nationale des centres de santé (FNCS), cited by Information Dentaire, gives a similar benchmark: 1,284 dental-only centers as of January 1, 2025, of which 64.5% are run by associations, 31% by mutual health insurers, and only 3 reported as for-profit. Our count of 1,454 includes multidisciplinary centers; those with only dentists and dental assistants number 969, fewer than the FNCS's 1,284: we only see centers where the register lists a dentist with a SIRET number, while FNCS starts from centers' own reports.

The top ten center operators

Operator (top 10)	Centers	Dentists
Oxance	29	132
VYV3 Normandie	22	65
Association du sourire et du bien-être bucco-dentaire (Dentelia)	18	217
VYV3 Terres d'Oc	17	38
Mutualité française Grand Sud	14	58
VYV 3 Est	14	46
Mutualité française Aisne-Nord-Pas-de-Calais	14	44
VYV 3 Centre-Val de Loire	14	45
Mutualité française Loire-Haute-Loire-Puy-de-Dôme	13	62
Filieris (mining sector social security scheme, CANSSM)	13	20

Ramsay Santé follows with 12 centers and 243 dentists. This table counts centers where the register lists dentists and groups them by operator; the networks section groups locations in the Scalon graph by brand name, so the figures differ.

In practice: 33 operators with 5 or more centers run 332 centers; the other 1,122 centers belong to 1,022 operators, of which 960 run only one. Selling to offices means winning business at about 21,400 addresses, one at a time.

Level 6. Chains, groups and independent practices: who shapes the market?#

The dental market is fragmented. Of 49,927 locations, 845, less than 2%, belong to a chain, a group, a franchise or another network of 5 or more sites. The other 49,082, or 98.3%, are independent offices and centers in the commercial sense: not part of a chain, a mutual or investor-backed group, a franchise, or a shared brand of that size.

Among the 845, mutual health groups weigh the most (420 locations), ahead of groups backed by an investment fund or a parent company (168); franchising remains marginal, with 6 locations. The network-by-network breakdown follows in the section on dental networks. For reference: according to IGAS and IGF, self-employed dental offices make up 90 to 95% of dental care facilities, with centers accounting for the rest.

These 49,082 independents are a maximum. Two cases are not yet separated out: small networks of 2 to 4 sites under the same brand, and locations run by the same local authority (18 local authorities or public bodies run 49, including 6 for the City of Paris). The unit remains the register entry: three dentists practicing under their own names in the same office count as three locations.

Company sharing is a secondary detail: 6,488 of the 49,927 locations share a company, a brand name or a website with at least one other (2,720 operators), most often a dentist with two addresses or a group office, which does not make them a chain.

Detail: locations that share a company, brand name or website

Player size	Players	Locations
1 location (no sharing)	43,439	43,439
2 locations	2,343	4,686
3 to 5 locations	322	1,073
6 to 20 locations	46	405
21 or more locations	9	324

Type of player with multiple locations	Players	Locations
Dentist at multiple addresses	1,405	2,875
Shared website or email	815	1,951
Practice company	270	560
Mutual health insurer or social security organization	73	447
Association	121	353
Network under one brand name	5	221
Local government	18	49
Other	13	32

In practice: a campaign targeting a network headquarters reaches fewer than 2 locations in 100; the rest need to be contacted office by office.

Dental networks: how many locations, and what types?#

Here, we count a network's registered locations by company, brand name or website; these are not all centers where the register lists dentists (Dentego: 81 locations, 10 centers with dentists in the register; we have not determined the reason for the gap). These figures therefore cannot be added to the 332 centers of the 33 large operators in level 5. For prospecting, start with centers and their operators; the network tells you which group they belong to.

We looked for networks with 5 or more locations operated by the same organization, using the same brand name, or belonging to the same group (VYV's regional unions combined), excluding local governments and dentists practicing under their own names. There are 70, bringing together 845 locations, or 1.7% of the 49,927. We classify them using public evidence of how they are organized.

Chart data

Network	Locations	Type
Groupe VYV (VYV Dentaire)	131	Mutual health insurer group
Dentego	81	Group (named fund or parent company)
Oxance	40	Mutual health insurer group
Aésio Santé	36	Mutual health insurer group
Dentelia (Association du sourire et du bien-être bucco-dentaire)	34	Group (named fund or parent company)
Dentylis	30	Group (named fund or parent company)
Mutualité française PACA	25	Mutual health insurer group
Mutualité française Champagne-Ardenne	22	Mutual health insurer group
Mutualité française Aisne-Nord-Pas-de-Calais	19	Mutual health insurer group
Filieris (mining sector social security scheme)	16	Social security organization

Networks by type

Network type (5 or more locations)	Networks	Locations
Mutual health insurer groups	26	420
Groups with a named fund or parent company	5	168
Branches run by the same operator	11	78
Social security organizations	6	52
Shared websites, ownership not established	21	121
Franchise	1	6

Mutual health insurer groups. These are the most numerous: 26 networks, 420 locations. Groupe VYV (brand name VYV Dentaire) leads with 131 locations; next come Oxance (40), Aésio Santé (36) and the regional unions of Mutualité française. Groupe VYV reported "150 VYV Dentaire centers" in February 2025; Aésio Santé, whose operators are registered as mutual unions, says it runs 38 mutual dental centers. Oxance was placed in procédure de sauvegarde (a French court-supervised restructuring process) on January 15, 2026, by the tribunal des affaires économiques de Lyon (AEF info, January 21, 2026); we have not reviewed how the proceedings developed afterward.

Groups with a named fund or parent company. Five networks, 168 locations. Dentego, 81 locations: each center is run by an association loi 1901 (a French nonprofit association), with a shared service provider, Adental Groupe, according to the network's website; according to IGAS and IGF (2025), the network came under the sole control of its main creditor, the fund Tikehau Capital. Dentelia: according to the network's website, Dentelia joined Colosseum Dental Group in 2021, whose majority shareholder is Jacobs Holding AG. Dentylis: according to IGAS and IGF, the fund MBO+ took an equity stake in the network's service company in September 2020. Clinadent: one association per center; the fund Qualium invested in Clinadent, according to Les Echos Études (2023). Ramsay Santé: 12 medical and dental centers acquired from Cosem, according to its Document d'enregistrement universel 2026.

Branches and social security. 11 networks of branches run by the same operator (78 locations), 6 social security organizations (52 locations), including Filieris.

Shared websites. 21 shared websites, 121 locations. We cannot say who owns these locations.

Franchising. A single small network, So Clinic, 6 locations, with a "Devenir franchisé" page. In our review, no large network publishes a franchise page.

The top ten networks bring together 434 locations: less than 1% of the total. Public announcements count differently: VYV reports 150 centers, Dentego "more than 80 centers" on its recruiting pages, and IGAS and IGF give Dentego 98 centers, Dentylis 50, Denteka 30 and Place dentaire 27. Our counts are minimums: a center is not captured if it has no dentist listed in the register and no 86.23Z location under the brand name (Dentylis: 30 in our count, 50 according to IGAS and IGF).

Who sits above the operators? Almost all centers (1,300 out of 1,454) are run by associations or mutual health insurers with no share capital: their group affiliation comes from public pages, not the register. Groupe VYV brings its regional unions together under the VYV Dentaire brand name; Dentelia joined Colosseum Dental Group, whose majority shareholder is Jacobs Holding; Dentego, Clinadent and Dentylis are backed by investment funds; Ramsay Santé acquired 12 Cosem centers. Dental practice companies can be owned by a holding company for professional practices (SPFPL): the Ordre recorded 285 new ones in 2025.

Public reports put the concentration in context. According to IGAS and IGF (2025), the 9 main networks account for 23% of dental centers, and 6 of these 9 networks have funds invested in their service provider. Funds do not take equity stakes in centers, which are legally nonprofit, but in service companies that supply them. According to the Cour des comptes (May 2026), new center openings fell from 144 in 2021 to 14 in 2024. The Ordre reports that 45 centers were closed or suspended in 2025 and that 1,452 practice companies and 285 holding companies for professional practices (SPFPL) were created that same year.

In practice: a few mutual health insurer unions and groups run dozens of centers, but most centers have their own operator. Selling to offices means winning business at thousands of addresses one at a time.

Level 7. Where do dentists practice?#

According to DREES, France has 70.5 dentists per 100,000 residents as of January 1, 2026. In the Rhône département (a French administrative district), for example, 1,683 dentists practice, and offices of self-employed dentists occupy 605 addresses. The table gives the same breakdown for each region.

The row for the five overseas departments counts 1,295 dentists. The other overseas territories have 254, included in the last row with the 736 dentists with no known department: overseas France as a whole has 1,549 dentists.

Among mainland regions, density varies almost twofold: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur leads with 98 dentists per 100,000 residents, Île-de-France has 85 and Occitanie 82, versus 50 in Normandie and Centre-Val de Loire.

Chart data

Region	Office addresses
Île-de-France	3,771
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	2,557
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	2,370
Occitanie	2,246
Grand Est	1,985
Nouvelle-Aquitaine	1,984
Hauts-de-France	1,557
Bretagne	1,038
Pays de la Loire	973
Normandie	772
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté	737
Centre-Val de Loire	634
Overseas France (five departments)	572
Corse	153
Other overseas territories or region not reported	80
Total	21,429

Dentist density by region (DREES)

Region (DREES, January 1, 2026)	Dentists per 100,000 residents
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	98
Île-de-France	85
Occitanie	82
Corse	71
Grand Est	70
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	69
Bretagne	67
Nouvelle-Aquitaine	65
Hauts-de-France	57
Pays de la Loire	55
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté	54
Centre-Val de Loire	50
Normandie	50
France	70.5

The gap is wider between departments: Paris has 165 dentists per 100,000 residents and Alpes-Maritimes 124, versus 34 in Creuse and 31 in Mayenne. Overseas, Guyane has 26 and Mayotte 7.

Headcounts are concentrated. According to DREES, Île-de-France has 10,651 dentists, or 21.9% of the total, and the top five departments have 10,541, or 21.6%. Online appointments follow the same map: 74.5% of dentists in Île-de-France take them, versus 38.7% elsewhere.

Departments: dentists, offices, density

Code	Department	Dentists (register, Nov. 5)	Office addresses	Dentists per 100,000 residents (DREES 2026)
01	Ain	364	168	52
02	Aisne	236	119	45
03	Allier	179	103	53
04	Alpes-de-Haute-Provence	111	71	59
05	Hautes-Alpes	112	61	74
06	Alpes-Maritimes	1,432	664	124
07	Ardèche	174	95	50
08	Ardennes	114	79	44
09	Ariège	99	53	63
10	Aube	159	91	48
11	Aude	268	127	68
12	Aveyron	169	92	58
13	Bouches-du-Rhône	2,182	913	102
14	Calvados	446	179	59
15	Cantal	77	41	51
16	Charente	167	78	46
17	Charente-Maritime	437	219	64
18	Cher	124	71	46
19	Corrèze	123	76	50
21	Côte-d'Or	325	158	58
22	Côtes-d'Armor	352	158	56
23	Creuse	39	27	34
24	Dordogne	219	127	48
25	Doubs	340	167	63
26	Drôme	360	182	67
27	Eure	268	130	44
28	Eure-et-Loir	214	92	50
29	Finistère	677	283	70
2A	Corse-du-Sud	143	83	77
2B	Haute-Corse	134	70	65
30	Gard	585	253	74
31	Haute-Garonne	1,558	611	99
32	Gers	119	65	64
33	Gironde	1,517	598	85
34	Hérault	1,266	510	96
35	Ille-et-Vilaine	823	338	72
36	Indre	82	49	37
37	Indre-et-Loire	354	159	54
38	Isère	818	345	61
39	Jura	138	58	55
40	Landes	345	166	68
41	Loir-et-Cher	180	88	49
42	Loire	436	191	56
43	Haute-Loire	127	76	53
44	Loire-Atlantique	1,045	408	68
45	Loiret	363	175	52
46	Lot	104	56	56
47	Lot-et-Garonne	164	92	49
48	Lozère	32	23	41
49	Maine-et-Loire	437	207	52
50	Manche	216	117	42
51	Marne	422	177	79
52	Haute-Marne	80	51	49
53	Mayenne	101	61	31
54	Meurthe-et-Moselle	518	245	73
55	Meuse	83	53	47
56	Morbihan	558	259	67
57	Moselle	675	339	64
58	Nièvre	94	60	47
59	Nord	1,763	776	66
60	Oise	458	184	55
61	Orne	104	63	37
62	Pas-de-Calais	724	363	51
63	Puy-de-Dôme	551	241	81
64	Pyrénées-Atlantiques	693	312	91
65	Hautes-Pyrénées	200	85	83
66	Pyrénées-Orientales	430	181	82
67	Bas-Rhin	1,121	549	92
68	Haut-Rhin	500	283	68
69	Rhône	1,683	605	86
70	Haute-Saône	86	50	37
71	Saône-et-Loire	294	125	52
72	Sarthe	240	113	40
73	Savoie	353	161	75
74	Haute-Savoie	735	349	81
75	Paris	3,411	1,202	165
76	Seine-Maritime	694	283	54
77	Seine-et-Marne	826	301	53
78	Yvelines	999	460	69
79	Deux-Sèvres	163	80	40
80	Somme	261	115	49
81	Tarn	285	122	68
82	Tarn-et-Garonne	149	68	55
83	Var	1,036	481	88
84	Vaucluse	399	180	70
85	Vendée	381	184	55
86	Vienne	198	120	44
87	Haute-Vienne	182	89	47
88	Vosges	220	118	59
89	Yonne	141	78	44
90	Territoire de Belfort	98	41	64
91	Essonne	841	333	62
92	Hauts-de-Seine	1,639	564	96
93	Seine-Saint-Denis	1,049	258	57
94	Val-de-Marne	1,161	377	78
95	Val-d'Oise	835	276	65
971	Guadeloupe	277	130	72
972	Martinique	250	139	72
973	Guyane	78	34	26
974	La Réunion	661	257	71
976	Mayotte	29	12	7

In practice: density shows where the supply of dentists is greatest, not how many offices operate there. To count offices by area, count the register's addresses.

A changing market: openings, closures, age#

The Sirene register records openings and closures of 86.23Z locations each year.

In 2025, 7,354 locations coded 86.23Z were created in the register and 6,151 were closed. These are registrations: a dentist setting up a practice, moving or opening a second office creates one; this is not the number of new offices. 15,510 of the 51,568 locations, or 30%, were created since October 1, 2023.

The profession is getting younger, and women make up a growing share. Since 2012, headcount has grown 20%: 40,488 dentists in early 2012, 48,690 in early 2026 according to DREES. As of January 1, 2026, 8,717 dentists are 60 or older (17.9%), and 16,066 are under 35. The average age has fallen from 48.4 in early 2012 to 43.9. In the register of November 5, 26,009 dentists are women, or 51.5% (51% according to DREES). For new entrants, the Ordre counts 2,567 first-time registrations in 2025.

In practice: nearly 3 in 10 locations were created since October 2023. A list ages quickly: date it and rebuild it. The Ordre counts 45 centers closed or suspended in 2025.

How much revenue do dentists generate?#

There are four ways to answer, and they are not comparable.

Industry revenue. Insee (France's national statistics office) publishes accounts by industry. In 2023, the "Pratique dentaire" industry (86.23Z) generated €15.9 billion in revenue. This industry total includes the output of all dental care providers, not just companies classified under this code. Do not divide this total by the number of dentists.

Self-employed dentists' fees. Assurance maladie publishes what it reimburses. In 2024, the 37,043 self-employed dentists covered by the national health insurance agreement billed €10.718 billion in fees, including charges above the agreed rates. The Cour des comptes (May 2026) puts dental care spending at €15.7 billion in 2024, and at least €17 billion when fees for nonreimbursable services are included. It also gives the average fees billed by a self-employed dentist: €302,000, versus €190,000 for a general practitioner. These are fees, not income: the practice pays its staff, premises and overhead from this amount.

The role of health centers. According to the Cour des comptes, their share of dental care spending reached 16% in 2024, versus 11% in 2018. For a supplier, this means a growing share of spending is controlled by center operators.

Dental companies' accounts. This is our measure. Of 14,666 businesses queried (excluding sole proprietors, including associations and mutual health insurers), 488 dental companies publish recent revenue for a fiscal year ending in 2024 or later; most are practice companies with several dentists. Half of these 488 companies generate less than €685,000 a year. A quarter generate less than €424,000, and a quarter more than €1.2 million. Only 5 exceed €5 million. The top 10 account for 10.3% of these 488 companies' revenue, and the top 100 for 49.2%.

Dental companies by revenue range

Revenue range	Dental companies
Less than €100,000	13
€100,000 to €250,000	31
€250,000 to €500,000	124
€500,000 to €1 million	159
€1 million to €2 million	116
€2 million to €5 million	40
€5 million or more	5

This measure covers companies that publish their accounts. Dentists practicing under their own names do not publish accounts, and many practice companies file confidentially: they are absent from these 488. The revenue covers all of the company's activities. It gives a sense of the scale of these companies, not offices.

In practice: a dental company that publishes its accounts typically generates about €685,000 in revenue a year. Accounts above €1.2 million form the top quarter of these 488 companies.

Which NAF code applies to a dentist?#

The NAF code (the French activity classification code, also called APE code) for dental practice is 86.23Z, titled "Pratique dentaire." It covers general and specialized dental practice, orthodontics and oral surgery. It excludes dental prosthesis laboratories (32.50A), hospital care (86.10Z) and dental hygienists (86.90D).

In the Sirene register as of October 1, 2026, 51,568 open locations carry code 86.23Z. That is more than the number of dentists, and more than twice the number of their practice addresses. The Sirene database guide explains how to read this register.

A self-employed dentist practicing under their own name has their own SIRET number, even in a group office: a list drawn from the code counts about one SIRET number per dentist, not one per office. According to Insee, the SIRET number is the fourteen-digit number of a location: the company's SIREN number followed by a number specific to the place of activity. 36,151 of these locations, or 70%, are registered to sole proprietors. Of the 31,289 whose name is published, 27,383 have the last and first name of a dentist in practice in the register, or 87.5%. Another 4,862 have asked the register not to publish their name or address.

86.23Z locations by legal form

Open 86.23Z locations as of October 1, 2026	Number	Share
Sole proprietors	36,151	70%
Professional practice companies (SEL; 11,270 SELARL, 744 SELAS)	12,014	23%
Associations and mutual health insurers (1,586 and 453)	2,039	4%
Other legal forms	1,364	3%

The code misses some health centers. In the register, only 7 in 10 health center SIRET numbers are open under 86.23Z; 174 are under 86.21Z, the general medicine code. A filter on 86.23Z alone therefore does not cover all centers.

The code will change. The new classification, NAF 2025, takes effect on January 1, 2027 (decree of July 31, 2025). 86.23Z becomes 86.23Y, "Activités de soins dentaires." Only the letter changes for 51,538 of the 51,568 locations: filtering by code remains possible, with the new letter.

Market terminology#

A few terms recur throughout the study. Here they are in plain English.

The fifteen terms, one line each

Term	Simple definition
Practicing dentist	Dentist listed in the register who reports at least one activity, excluding students
RPPS	The register where every health professional is recorded; a public copy is published online every day
General dentist	Dentist with no specialty in the register
Orthodontist (ODF, the French abbreviation for dentofacial orthopedics)	Dentist specializing in orthodontics (dentofacial orthopedics)
Self-employed, salaried, mixed	A self-employed dentist works for themselves and bills patients; a salaried dentist is an employee; a mixed-practice dentist is both
Office	An address where at least one self-employed dentist practices; the office count is an address count
Group office	An office where several dentists share the premises
SIRET number	A location's number in the business register; a dentist may have one, several or none
SEL (SELARL, SELAS)	Professional practice company: a company in which dentists practice together
SPFPL	Société de participations financières de professions libérales: a holding company for professional practices; the Ordre counts 285 created in 2025
Health center	A care facility employing salaried dentists; legally nonprofit (IGAS-IGF, 2025)
Center operator	The organization running one or more centers: association, mutual health insurer, local government, social security organization or company
Market player	All locations belonging to the same owner, based on our groupings
Independent	An office or center that is not part of a chain, a mutual or investor-backed group, a franchise, a shared brand or a buying group; sharing its company with a second office does not change this
Network	Five or more locations operated by the same organization, using the same brand name, or belonging to the same group (VYV's regional unions combined), excluding local governments and dentists practicing under their own names

How do you build a dentist prospect list?#

Download the "personne-activité" extract from Annuaire santé (France's health professionals directory) on data.gouv.fr. Filter for dentists who are self-employed and practice in your target postal codes. Group rows by address: this gives you your offices (605 in Rhône). Then look up each office on a public online booking page to find its procedures and phone number.

The register gives a practice phone number for 16,134 dentists, or 32%, and an email address for 2,550, or 5%. On the public listings of the 49,927 locations, 61.6% have a known phone number, 12.4% a website, 2.5% a public email address and 16.5% a booking link. The phone therefore comes first for reaching an office; websites and email addresses remain rare.

Online booking pages help you reach them. 23,322 dentists, or 46%, take appointments there; another 14,558, or 29%, have only a directory page, with no booking. The gap between areas is clear: 74.5% in Île-de-France, 38.7% elsewhere, 80% in Hauts-de-Seine, 12% in Finistère.

These pages also provide targeting signals. Of the 17,444 dentists who list their languages, nearly 8 in 10 speak a foreign language: English first (73%), then Spanish (26%) and Portuguese (9%). Of the 16,744 who list their status under the national health insurance agreement, only 40 are outside that agreement. Teleconsultation remains marginal: 86 dentists offer it. Of the 13,786 locations with published hours, nearly 1 in 5 opens on Saturday, fewer than 1 in 100 on Sunday, and 1 in 10 stays open after 7 p.m.

In practice: a dentist prospect list is built in three steps. First, the segment, using the register. Then the decision-maker, self-employed dentist or operator. Finally, contact details and signals, using public listings and online booking pages. Our prospect list guide details the method.

To compare with other health professions, see our counts of doctors, pharmacies, nursing homes and hospitals.

For more on health and social care facilities, see our guide to FINESS, France's health and social care directory.

Frequently asked questions#

How many dentists are there in France in 2026?#

The November 5, 2026 health professionals register lists 50,472 dentists with a professional activity on record, excluding students. DREES counts 48,690 as of January 1, 2026.

How many dental offices are there in France?#

About 21,400 office addresses. 10,331 have only one dentist, and 70 have eleven or more.

How many dental centers are there in France?#

1,454 health centers where the register lists dentists (8,315 dentists), run by 1,055 operators, of which 33 run 5 or more. FNCS counts 1,284 dental-only centers as of January 1, 2025.

How many orthodontists are there in France?#

2,503 dentists specialize in orthodontics (dentofacial orthopedics), including 2,197 who are self-employed or in mixed practice.

Why do DREES, the Ordre and Scalon give different figures?#

They count at different dates and with different rules. DREES counts as of January 1, 2026 (48,690, projected to about 49,600 by November 5); the Ordre counts those "in practice" in 2025 (49,913), without a written rule; our count dates from November 5 (50,472).

How much revenue does a dental office generate?#

Among the 488 dental companies that publish their accounts, mostly practice companies with several dentists, half generate less than €685,000 a year; this is not the figure for an average office. Dentists practicing under their own names do not publish accounts. A benchmark from a different population: according to UNASA, cited by Information Dentaire, 3,246 offices reported an average of €288,901 in receipts in 2023.

Which are the largest dental networks?#

Groupe VYV (131 locations), Dentego (81), Oxance (40), Aésio Santé (36) and Dentelia (34). The top ten networks bring together 434 locations out of 49,927.

What share of dental locations is independent?#

At most 98.3%: 49,082 of the 49,927 locations do not belong to any chain, group, franchise or network of 5 or more sites. Small networks of 2 to 4 sites under the same brand are not yet separated out.

Which APE code applies to a dentist in 2027?#

Today, 86.23Z. On January 1, 2027, it becomes 86.23Y, "Activités de soins dentaires": only the letter changes for 51,538 of the 51,568 locations.

Method#

The dentist count comes from the RPPS register of November 5, 2026, reviewed practitioner by practitioner, and DREES (data as of January 1, 2026, published July 2, 2026). We matched its practice locations to the Sirene register, company accounts and public online booking pages brought together in the Scalon graph. Scalon reviewed some of the register's locations a second time. Next update: with DREES data as of January 1, 2027 (publication expected in July 2027) and an updated snapshot of the register.

Edition history. November 2, 2026: first edition, 50,346 dentists in the register of November 1. November 6, 2026: market study, 50,472 dentists in the register of November 5 (126 more in four days; the public copy does not say why); addition of purchasing decision-makers, centers and their operators, networks classified by type, company revenue, regions and departments. Address check: 100 randomly drawn office addresses were reviewed by two independent readers, then arbitrated by Scalon: 2 definite errors out of 100 (the same address written two ways, so one office counted twice; at most 7% at 95% confidence), 4 remain uncertain, 94 are correct. About 21,400 offices remains an approximate figure, slightly high rather than low. November 9, 2026: "independent" now has its commercial meaning. Previously, it meant a location that shares no company, brand name or website with another (43,439, 87.0%); it now means a location outside any chain, group, franchise or network of 5 or more sites (at most 49,082, 98.3%), and company sharing becomes a secondary detail.

Method details and limits

Practitioners. "personne-activite" extract of the open-access RPPS (Agence du numérique en santé, data.gouv.fr, November 5, 2026): 64,978 registered dentists, including 53,557 with at least one activity record. We remove the 3,085 students ("étudiant" professional category): 50,472 practitioners. Sex: inferred from the courtesy title in the register. Practice type: self-employed only 37,623, salaried only 8,762, both 4,009, other 78. Specialties: "savoirfaire" file from the same day, specialties recognized by the Ordre. DREES counts 48,690 practitioners as of January 1, 2026 in its detailed file "Chirurgiens-dentistes RPPS 2012-2026"; its counting rules, which require recent professional activity in France, cannot be replicated using the public extract. The DREES projection to November 5 extends its annual growth rate for 2025 (+2.21% a year, 308 days): 49,597. The public copy changes: on November 1, it counted 50,346 dentists. Geography: all of France, including overseas territories; 1,549 dentists have their first practice location overseas and 736 have no known department in the register.

Addresses. An address groups activities sharing the same postal code, street number and street, written in capitals without accents; when no street is reported, the register's practice entity stands in. The address type is the most frequent activity sector of its practitioners: office (solo, group, practice company), health center, public hospital, university, other. Result: 23,804 addresses. This is an approximate figure: two offices in the same building merge, and an address written two ways counts twice. In the register, dentists in a group office often each have their own practice entity, with no SIRET number. Regional and departmental tables: dentists are assigned to the region or department of their first activity in the register; density comes from DREES as of January 1, 2026. A random sample of 100 of these addresses, reviewed twice, contains 2 definite duplicate spellings (see "Edition history").

Decision-maker and employer. A dentist who is only self-employed is classified by the number of dentists at their address (alone, 2 to 5, 6 or more, no address). Their role comes from the same register: of the 41,632 self-employed or mixed-practice dentists, 35,851 own their office or are partners in a practice company in at least one self-employed activity, 5,304 are associates, 369 are temporary substitutes and 108 have another or unreported role; among the 37,623 dentists who are only self-employed in the chart, 32,408 are owners or partners. A salaried dentist is classified by the type of their salaried practice location; a mixed-practice dentist is assigned to their employer in the chart, and also counts among the 41,632 self-employed or mixed-practice dentists. The "health center" bar (8,943) counts salaried dentists in a location classified as a health center, including centers with no SIRET number. The employer is the location's SIREN number (the first 9 digits of the SIRET number), or failing that, the legal entity in the FINESS directory: 662 salaried activities have no identifiable employer. Self-employed practice entities are those in the register: 11,531 distinct entities for 21,584 self-employed or mixed-practice dentists.

Health centers. Practitioners in the "health centers" sector with a SIRET number: 1,454 SIRET numbers, 8,315 dentists. A center counts as "dental only" if no profession other than dentist and dental assistant is listed there in the register (969). The operator is identified by the SIREN number within the center's SIRET number; a group of mutual insurers may operate across several regions under one SIREN number. The 33 operators with 5 or more centers are the 20 with 5 to 9 centers and the 13 with 10 or more centers. An association network with a shared service provider mostly has operators running a single center: in the register, the 10 Dentego centers where dentists practice belong to 9 operators, of which 8 run only one; the 7 Clinadent centers belong to 7 distinct operators. The FNCS benchmarks come from its Observatoire des centres de santé, cited by Information Dentaire on October 6, 2025: they start from centers' own reports, while we start from registered practitioners.

Sirene register. Location snapshot file as of October 1, 2026 and legal unit file from the same month, data.gouv.fr: 51,568 open locations under code 86.23Z. Openings: location creation date; closures: closure dates in the register. A sole proprietor is matched to a dentist in practice when their last name (or name in use) and first given name in the business register match their professional name in the health professionals register: this is a minimum, since a different name prevents a match. NAF 2025 correspondence: Insee's table, 51,538 locations move from 86.23Z to 86.23Y.

Structure and networks. Population: the 51,569 open 86.23Z locations read on November 2 and the 1,454 health centers where dentists practice in the register, or 52,005 SIRET numbers, grouped into 49,927 locations in the Scalon graph read on November 2, 2026. Each location gets a single key, with no chained grouping: its website domain if shared and the sharing is proven, otherwise its verified brand name, otherwise its email domain under the same conditions, otherwise its SIREN number. Directories, booking platforms, email services, website builders and hosts are excluded; two website builders were reviewed again on November 6. This first pass defines the market players. To form networks, we then combine players with the same operator, brand name or group (the VYV unions, Aésio and Ramsay); the threshold of five locations applies after these groupings, excluding local governments and dentists practicing under their own names: 70 networks, 845 locations. Each network is classified by type using public evidence (network pages, reports by IGAS and IGF, the Cour des comptes and the Ordre, group documents); without evidence, it remains "shared website, type not established." A network with no shared domain, brand name or SIREN number is not captured: these counts are minimums. Contact: phone, website and email from public business listings, professional directories and websites read, linked to each location; these shares are minimums, since the matching of listings to the register is incomplete.

Revenue. Company accounts in the Scalon graph, read on November 6, 2026: latest fiscal year ending in 2024 or later, revenue above zero, each SIREN number counted once. Of 14,666 SIREN numbers queried, 4,652 have a fiscal year on record; 4,160 are excluded (zero revenue or fiscal year before 2024), leaving 492 companies, including 488 under code 86.23Z. The "typical" figures are medians (€685,465): half of companies generate less; the quartiles are €423,749 and €1,226,686. Sole proprietors do not publish accounts, and many professional practice companies do not file or file confidentially. The Insee (Esane 2023, industry 86.23Z), Assurance maladie (2024 fact sheet) and Cour des comptes (May 2026) benchmarks come from the cited publications.

Online booking. Public practitioner pages for online appointment booking, read in the Scalon graph on November 2, 2026 (categories dentist, orthodontist, stomatologist: 45,430 pages), matched to the RPPS register of November 1, 2026 by the RPPS number they display; 3,446 pages without a number and 1,936 pages whose number is not that of a practicing dentist are excluded. Each practitioner counts once, regardless of their number of pages. The shares (46%, 29%, 74.5%, 38.7%) are calculated on the 50,346 dentists in the November 1 copy, giving 46% on the November 5 copy as well. A page is counted as offering online booking if appointments can be booked through it; otherwise, it is a directory listing. Department: that of the practitioner's first activity in the register. Office: address of the consultation location on the page (11,059 addresses; one building can house two offices). Procedures, languages and status under the national health insurance agreement: declared on the page, counted among dentists who display them. No page says whether the office accepts new patients.

Names. A random sample of 60 sole proprietors and companies not matched to a practice location in the register (seed 20261102) was reviewed by Scalon with the Claude Haiku 5.5 model (Anthropic) using their public business listings, professional directories or online booking pages. Of 30 sole proprietors with no active dentist of the same name, 22 show a dentist in practice (usually under a different name) and 8 remain uncertain; of 30 companies that are not a practice location in the register, 11 show an active office, 18 remain uncertain (companies seen only in the business register) and 1 review did not succeed. These reviews do not change any total.

Key takeaways#

• France has 50,472 practicing dentists as of November 5, 2026. DREES counts 48,690 as of January 1 and the Ordre 49,913 in 2025: the gap between DREES and our count is less than 4%.
• 41,632 dentists are self-employed; 35,851 own or co-own their office and decide on its purchases.
• They practice at about 21,400 office addresses, of which 10,331 have only one dentist.
• 1,454 health centers employ dentists, run by 1,055 operators; 33 of them run 5 or more centers, or 332 centers.
• 845 of the 49,927 locations, less than 2%, belong to a chain, a group, a franchise or another network of 5 or more sites; the other 49,082, at most, are independent. The top ten networks bring together 434 locations.
• 488 dental companies publish their accounts, mostly companies with several dentists: half generate less than €685,000 in annual revenue.
• A SIRET number is not an office, and an office is not a dentist. Before buying or building a list, choose your denominator: people, self-employed dentists, addresses or accounts.

Cite this study#

The full citation, with headcounts

Scalon Observatory, "Number of Dentists in France: 50,500 Dentists in 2026," November 9, 2026: 50,472 dentists with at least one professional activity listed in the RPPS register of November 5, 2026, including 41,632 self-employed or mixed-practice dentists, at about 23,800 practice addresses, including 21,429 offices; 48,690 practicing dentists as of January 1, 2026 (DREES); 51,568 open locations under code 86.23Z in the Sirene register as of October 1, 2026; 1,454 health centers run by 1,055 operators; 845 of the 49,927 grouped locations belong to a network with 5 or more sites, and the other 49,082, at most, are independent. https://scalon.fr/en/observatory/number-of-dentists-in-france

Sources#

• Démographie des professionnels de santé au 1er janvier 2026, DREES, 2 juillet 2026
• Centres dentaires mutualistes, Aésio Santé
• Résultats 2023 des cabinets dentaires, Information Dentaire, 10 septembre 2024
• Centres de santé : l'union de mutuelles Oxance, endettée et déficitaire, est placée en procédure de sauvegarde, AEF info, 21 janvier 2026
• Les effectifs de kinésithérapeutes, pharmaciens, chirurgiens-dentistes, sages-femmes et pédicures-podologues continuent de progresser entre début 2025 et début 2026, DREES, 2 juillet 2026
• La démographie des professionnels de santé depuis 2012, fichier « Chirurgiens-dentistes RPPS 2012-2026 », data.drees
• Démographie des professionnels de santé au 1er janvier 2025, DREES, 28 juillet 2025
• Quelle démographie récente et à venir pour les professions médicales et pharmaceutique ?, Les Dossiers de la DREES n° 76, mars 2021
• Rapport d'activité 2025, Ordre national des chirurgiens-dentistes, juillet 2026
• Chirurgiens-dentistes : les chiffres clés de 2025, MACSF, 11 mars 2025
• Rapport de la commission des affaires sociales sur la proposition de loi relative aux assistants en prophylaxie bucco-dentaire, Sénat, n° 84 (2025-2026), octobre 2025
• Annuaire Santé, extractions en libre accès des professionnels intervenant dans le système de santé (RPPS), fichiers du 5 novembre 2026, Agence du numérique en santé, data.gouv.fr
• Base Sirene des entreprises et de leurs établissements, fichiers stock d'octobre 2026, Insee, data.gouv.fr
• Statistiques structurelles d'entreprises (Esane) 2023, fichier par branche, Insee
• Chirurgiens-dentistes libéraux, fiche 2024, Assurance maladie
• Les soins dentaires, Cour des comptes, mai 2026
• Causes et effets de la financiarisation du système de santé, IGAS et IGF, 2025
• Après plusieurs années de progression, le nombre de centres de santé dentaires se stabilise, Information Dentaire, 6 octobre 2025 (Observatoire des centres de santé, FNCS)
• Décret du 31 juillet 2025 portant la nomenclature NAF 2025, Légifrance
• Passage à la NAF 2025 et table de correspondance, Insee
• Sous-classe 86.23Z, Pratique dentaire, NAF rév. 2, Insee
• Numéro Siret, définition, Insee
• Dentego, qui sommes-nous
• Dentelia, qui sommes-nous
• Clinadent, mentions légales
• La marque VYV Dentaire fête ses 3 ans, groupe VYV, 7 février 2025
• Oxance, qui sommes-nous
• Document d'enregistrement universel 2026, Ramsay Santé
• Observatoire de la franchise, So Clinic franchise listing
• Les Echos Études, étude sur les centres de soins dentaires, 20 avril 2023