DMD vs DDS: Is There a Difference? (ADA & CODA Facts)

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There is no difference between a DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery) and a DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine). According to the American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), both degrees use the exact same curriculum standards set by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) across all 79 accredited U.S. dental schools and 10 accredited Canadian dental schools, and state licensing boards accept both as equivalent. Sources: ADA Health Policy Institute: Dental Education, ADA: High School and College Students Career Guide, ADA: Practicing Dentistry and Career Pathways. Last checked November 3, 2026.

DDS vs. DMD at a glance

Both degrees mean the dentist graduated from an accredited dental school. The ADA and ADEA state that DDS and DMD dentists receive the same education, complete the same curriculum requirements, and hold the exact same legal scope of practice. Individual universities decide whether to award the DDS or the DMD title.

If you are preparing for interviews at either type of program, Confetto, an AI mock interviewer for dental school and other healthcare program interviews, lets you practice traditional, panel, and MMI questions out loud with rubric-based feedback. Start your free week.

DDS vs. DMD comparison (official ADA and ADEA standards)
Feature	DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery)	DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine)
Accrediting body in the U.S.	Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA)	Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA)
Curriculum standards	Set by the ADA and CODA	Identical standards set by the ADA and CODA
Standard program length	Three to four years undergraduate plus four years of dental school	Three to four years undergraduate plus four years of dental school
Years One and Two focus	Basic health sciences, oral diagnosis, manikins and models	Basic health sciences, oral diagnosis, manikins and models
Years Three and Four focus	Supervised patient care and practice management	Supervised patient care and practice management
Licensure requirements	CODA-accredited degree plus written and practical exams	CODA-accredited degree plus written and practical exams
Clinical scope of practice	Full scope of general dentistry (including exams, fillings, crowns, implants, extractions, tissue grafts, and corrective surgeries)	Full scope of general dentistry (including exams, fillings, crowns, implants, extractions, tissue grafts, and corrective surgeries)
Centralized application (U.S.)	ADEA AADSAS (or ADEA CAAPID for international dentists)	ADEA AADSAS (or ADEA CAAPID for international dentists)
Specialty eligibility	Eligible for all 12 recognized dental specialties	Eligible for all 12 recognized dental specialties

Education, curriculum, and licensing requirements

Becoming a dentist generally takes three to four years of undergraduate study followed by four academic years of dental school. You do not need to major in biology or another science as an undergraduate. ADEA notes that dental schools require a strong foundation in the sciences, including biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics, and have accepted students who majored in music, art history, engineering, math, humanities, and sports administration. See our guide to dental school requirements for a full breakdown of courses, the DAT, and shadowing.

Once you enroll in dental school, the four-year progression is the same whether your diploma says DDS or DMD:

Years One and Two: Classroom and laboratory instruction in basic health sciences, including anatomy, biochemistry, histology, microbiology, pharmacology, and physiology, with an emphasis on dental aspects. Students learn the basic principles of oral diagnosis and treatment, practice on manikins and models, and may begin treating patients later in the second year.
Years Three and Four: Students treat patients under the supervision of licensed dental faculty across settings such as community clinics, hospitals, and outpatient clinics. They also take practice management courses covering effective communication skills, working with allied dental personnel, and business management.

State licensure and patient scope of practice

All states require dentists to be licensed before they practice, and dentists must go through the licensure process at least once during their careers. Moving to a new state can require repeating the process to meet that state's rules. In most states, a candidate must graduate from a U.S. dental school accredited by CODA and pass both written and practical examinations. State licensing boards accept the DDS and DMD as equivalent and grant licensed graduates the same general dentistry scope of practice.

For patients, a DDS is not trained for more surgical work than a DMD, and a DMD does not take different medical classes than a DDS. Any general dentist is trained to evaluate overall health, diagnose and treat oral conditions, and perform clinical and surgical procedures such as fillings, crowns, implants, tissue grafts, extractions, and corrective surgeries. Dentists also detect issues beyond tooth decay and gum disease during oral exams, including oral cancer, cardiovascular problems, and diabetes, and administering vaccinations in-office is another example of scope of practice.

Which dental schools grant DDS vs. DMD?

The difference between the two titles comes down to university naming tradition: ADEA and the ADA state that each individual university determines whether to award the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) or Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) degree, while all programs follow the same curriculum standards set by the ADA and CODA. According to the ADA Health Policy Institute, there are 79 CODA-accredited dental schools in the United States and 10 in Canada. CODA also accredits two international predoctoral dental education programs outside North America: King Abdulaziz University Dental School in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (accredited in August 2019, the first international predoctoral program CODA accredited) and Yeditepe University Faculty of Dentistry in Istanbul, Türkiye (2024).

Between 2020 and 2026, CODA granted accreditation to 13 new U.S. predoctoral dental education programs. Their official names show how individual universities choose between "School of Dentistry" or "College of Dental Medicine" naming conventions:

2026: Larkin University School of Dentistry (Miami, FL) and Yeshiva University College of Dental Medicine (New York, NY)
2025: University of Pikeville Tanner College of Dental Medicine (Pikeville, KY) and Lyon College School of Dental Medicine (Little Rock, AR)
2024: PNWU School of Dental Medicine (Yakima, WA), Northeast Ohio Medical University College of Dentistry (Rootstown, OH), and Universidad Ana G. Mendez - Gurabo, School of Dental Medicine (Gurabo, PR)
2023: High Point University Workman School of Dental Medicine (High Point, NC) and Ponce Health Science University School of Dental Medicine (Ponce, PR)
2022: Lincoln Memorial University College of Dental Medicine (Harrogate, TN) and Kansas City University College of Dental Medicine (Kansas City, MO)
2021: California Northstate University College of Dental Medicine (Elk Grove, CA)
2020: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso

How to look up which degree a dental school awards

Because there is no official ranking of dental schools, both the ADA and ADEA warn applicants to view privately published rankings with caution. To see whether a specific school among the 79 U.S. and 10 Canadian programs awards a DDS or a DMD, and to compare programs on location, class size, curriculum, clinical settings, and cost, use the official ADA and ADEA directories. The ADA hosts an interactive U.S. Dental Schools at a Glance map (updated August 2026) and the CODA Search DDS/DMD Programs tool. ADEA publishes the 2025-26 ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools for $35, which includes a PDF book and a one-year subscription to the online ADEA Dental School Explorer, where you can filter U.S. and Canadian schools and compare up to four programs side by side.

What DMD vs. DDS means for dental school admissions

You apply to traditional DDS and DMD programs through the exact same centralized portal: ADEA AADSAS (Associated American Dental Schools Application Service), alongside TMDSAS for Texas schools. For the 2026-27 cycle, ADEA AADSAS opened on May 12, 2026, accepted first submissions on June 3, 2026, and closes on Feb. 5, 2027. Internationally educated dentists applying to advanced standing DDS or DMD programs in the U.S. apply through ADEA CAAPID, which runs from Mar. 5, 2026 to Jan. 29, 2027. In 2025-26, 947 graduates of international dental schools were admitted to U.S. dental schools with advanced standing, up from 915 the prior year.

For the Fall 2024 entering class, 12,491 applicants competed for 6,719 first-time, first-year seats across U.S. DMD and DDS programs. By our calculation from ADA and ADEA data, 53.8% of applicants enrolled as first-year students in Fall 2024 (about 1.86 applicants per first-year seat). ADEA's September 2026 report on the 2025 entering class notes that applicant and first-time, first-year enrollment totals reached their highest levels of the past decade, and that applicant growth exceeded enrollment growth.

Total predoctoral enrollment reached a historical high of 28,925 students in the 2025-26 academic year, up from 27,920 the year before and up from 24,117 in 2015-16. The Class of 2025 produced 7,015 graduates, up from 6,872 in 2024. In 2025-26, 58.1% of all enrolled predoctoral dental students and 56.4% of Class of 2025 graduates were female, and non-resident aliens made up 3.3% of first-year students and 6.9% of graduates.

Schools evaluate your file through a holistic review that weighs GPAs (recorded separately for undergraduate and graduate coursework), Dental Admission Test (DAT) scores, biographical and demographic information, and community service. The DAT can be taken at most three times, with a mandatory 90-day wait between attempts.

In the ADEA AADSAS and ADEA CAAPID application cycles, evaluators who submit letters through the Liaison Letters portal are asked to answer 13 new required relationship and characteristic questions (comments are optional, and responses carry no numeric score). The 10 characteristics rated are critical thinking, didactic knowledge, integrity, interpersonal skills, maturity, motivation to pursue dentistry, organizational skills, professional demeanor, reaction to criticism, and self-awareness. Applicants can submit one committee or composite letter plus up to three individual letters, or four individual letters. If you use Interfolio or a committee letter where the committee has not agreed on ratings, the questions are marked "NA/Not Observed," which ADEA notes is expected and not a cause for concern.

What costs to compare instead of the degree letters

Tuition and application expenses vary widely by public versus private status and state residency, not by whether a school grants a DDS or a DMD. ADEA reports that applicants apply to an average of 9.81 dental schools in the U.S. and Canada.

Once accepted, typically after December 1, you must pay a class deposit ranging from $500 to $2,000 to hold your seat, which is usually non-refundable.

In 2025-26, the ADA's Survey of Dental Education reported a wide gap between in-state public, out-of-state public, and private first-year tuition and mandatory general fees. By our calculation from those 2025-26 ADA figures, an out-of-state student at a public dental school pays $32,323 more in first-year tuition and mandatory fees than an in-state resident, and a resident at a private dental school pays $43,245 more (nearly double, at 1.92 times the public resident average).

Dental school application and first-year tuition costs (ADEA and ADA 2025-26 data)
Cost item	Official figure	What it covers
Class deposit	$500 to $2,000	Holds your first-year seat after acceptance, usually non-refundable and applied to first-year tuition
Public school (resident, Year 1)	$46,845	2025-26 average first-year tuition and mandatory general fees at public programs
Public school (non-resident, Year 1)	$79,168	2025-26 average first-year tuition and mandatory general fees for out-of-state public students
Private school (resident, Year 1)	$90,090	2025-26 average first-year tuition and mandatory general fees at private programs

How to handle DDS vs. DMD in dental school interviews

In your interviews, never suggest that a DMD program is "more medical" or a DDS program is "more surgical." Admissions committees know the CODA curriculum standards are identical, and claiming otherwise signals that you have not researched how dental education works.

Instead, focus your "Why our school?" answer on the concrete factors ADEA recommends investigating during your junior and senior years: location, class size, composition of the student body, curriculum highlights, and clinical settings (such as community clinics, hospitals, and outpatient clinics). Both the ADA and ADEA advise seniors to do mock interview practice before admissions interviews and to budget ahead for professional business attire, flights, hotels, and meals.

For school-by-school formats and common prompts, read our guide to dental school interview questions, or go straight to our dental school interview prep hub to practice out loud.

Use this six-step checklist to audit your school list and interview prep:

Check your written materials: Make sure you use the right degree letters (DDS or DMD) and college name (for example, School of Dentistry vs. College of Dental Medicine) in every secondary essay and thank-you note.
Compare four schools in ADEA Dental School Explorer: Write down two specific curriculum or clinical features for each school you interview at, such as when students start treating patients in the second year or which community and hospital clinics Years Three and Four rotate through.
Prepare for the 10 AADSAS evaluation characteristics: Have one concrete story ready that shows reaction to criticism, self-awareness, integrity, and interpersonal skills, the exact traits evaluators rate on the 13 new relationship and characteristic questions in the Liaison Letters portal.
Set your interview budget early: Price out a business suit, flights or driving, and hotel nights before invitations arrive so travel costs do not catch you off guard.
Track post-December 1 deposit rules: Know the $500 to $2,000 deposit amount and response window for each school so you do not lose a seat or forfeit multiple non-refundable deposits.
Run timed mock interviews: Practice with your pre-health advisor, your career center, or on Confetto so your answers sound conversational rather than rehearsed.

Specialties, career paths, and dentist salary

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In addition to General Practice Residency (GPR) and Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) programs, plus the ADA's formally recognized general dentistry interest area in Operative Dentistry, Cariology and Biomaterials, the National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards recognizes 12 dental specialties: Dental Anesthesiology, Dental Public Health, Endodontics, Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Periodontics, Pediatric Dentistry, Prosthodontics, Oral Medicine, and Orofacial Pain.

The ADA also outlines clinical and federal practice models open to both DDS and DMD graduates: solo ownership, small group practices (typically two to five dentists), Dental Support Organizations (DSOs), hospital-based medical-dental practices, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs, where medical, dental, and behavioral health share a single chart), the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense (serving over 1 million active military personnel), the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and dental school faculty.

Pay depends on whether you practice as a general dentist or a specialist and how your practice is structured, not on whether your degree is a DDS or a DMD. According to the ADA Health Policy Institute's 2023 Survey of Dental Practice (reporting 2022 income), the average net income for a private general practitioner who owned all or part of a practice was $218,220, compared with $335,920 for a dental specialist.

Ready to practice your dental school interview answers out loud? Confetto runs realistic mock interviews with follow-up questions and detailed feedback on every response. Start your free week.

Practice question

You applied to both DDS and DMD programs this cycle. Why did you choose our College of Dental Medicine, and does the DMD degree change how you plan to practice?

See an example answer

I know that the DMD and DDS degrees follow the exact same CODA curriculum standards and carry the same scope of practice under state licensing boards, so the letters after my name will not change how I care for patients. What drew me to your program is how you structure clinical training in the third and fourth years. When I compared programs in the ADEA Dental School Explorer, I saw that your students rotate through both hospital outpatient clinics and rural community health centers starting in year three. For the past two years I volunteered as a chairside assistant at a Federally Qualified Health Center where medical and dental records were shared on a single chart. Several of our patients had unmanaged diabetes that showed up first as periodontal disease, and watching the dentist coordinate directly with the primary care physician showed me the kind of practice I want to join. Your third-year community clinic rotations train students in that exact setting, which is why your program is at the top of my list.

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented. This answer works because it states the official ADA and CODA equivalence right away instead of falling for the myth that a DMD is more medical, then pivots to specific clinical rotation details and a real experience at an FQHC.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a DDS and a DMD?

There is no difference. According to the ADA and ADEA, both DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery) and DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine) degrees mean the dentist graduated from an accredited dental school, completed the same curriculum requirements set by CODA, and passed the required licensing exams.

Why do some dental schools award a DMD and others award a DDS?

Each university decides which degree title to award. Regardless of which title a university chooses, all 79 accredited U.S. dental schools and 10 accredited Canadian dental schools must meet the same educational standards.

Do DDS and DMD dentists make the same salary?

Yes, income depends on specialty and practice ownership rather than degree letters. According to the ADA Health Policy Institute's 2023 Survey of Dental Practice, the 2022 average net income was $218,220 for private general practitioners who owned all or part of their practice and $335,920 for dental specialists.

Do I use a different application for DMD vs. DDS dental schools?

No. You apply to both traditional DDS and DMD programs through ADEA AADSAS, which opens May 12, 2026 and closes Feb. 5, 2027, and internationally educated dentists apply to both through ADEA CAAPID.

Does having a DDS or DMD affect becoming an orthodontist or oral surgeon?

Both DDS and DMD degrees meet the exact same CODA educational requirements, and graduates of either program can pursue postgraduate specialty training in any of the 12 recognized dental specialties, including Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.