How Long Is Dental School? DDS/DMD Length and Timeline

Your total schooling depends on whether you follow the traditional four-year college plus four-year dental school route, enter a combined degree program, or pursue post-graduate specialty training after earning your DDS or DMD.

According to the American Dental Association (ADA) Health Policy Institute, there are 79 CODA-accredited dental schools in the United States and 10 in Canada. In the 2025-26 academic year, 28,925 students were enrolled across US predoctoral dental programs, and the Class of 2025 had 7,015 graduates.

When your interview invitation arrives in senior year, Confetto lets you rehearse traditional, panel and MMI dental interviews out loud with follow-up questions. Start your free week on our dental school interview practice page.

Both the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) and Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) degrees follow the same four-year structure and meet the same national accreditation standards set by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA). At its Summer 2026 meeting, CODA adopted revised Accreditation Standards for Dental Education Programs that take effect July 1, 2028.

ADEA breaks the four-year general dental school curriculum into two halves:

• Years 1 and 2 (D1 and D2): Focus on biological science classes alongside foundational dental coursework.
• Years 3 and 4 (D3 and D4): Focus on clinical work and supervised patient care experiences.
• International dental graduates: Foreign-educated dental graduates who already hold a dental degree from outside the US or Canada can apply to advanced standing programs at US dental schools through the ADEA Centralized Application for Advanced Placement for International Dentists (CAAPID). In 2025-26, 947 graduates of international dental schools were admitted to US dental schools with advanced standing.

Many dental schools in the US and Canada offer combined degree programs alongside the DDS or DMD, per ADEA's Combined Degree Programs guide. These fall into two categories: undergraduate agreements that can shorten your path, and graduate tracks that add a second credential.

• Combined baccalaureate and dental degree programs: Formal arrangements between a dental school and its parent university or another undergraduate institution. These programs can shorten the total length of training. In some cases, colleges independently grant a bachelor's degree to students who entered dental school before finishing undergrad once they complete part of their dental training.
• Combined graduate and dental degree programs: Programs pairing a DDS or DMD with a master's degree (M.A., M.S., M.B.A. or M.P.H.) or a doctorate (Ph.D., M.D. or D.O.) in areas such as basic sciences (biology, physiology, chemistry), public policy or medicine. According to ADEA, these combined graduate and dental programs usually take 6 to 7 years to complete. Because combined degree structures are set by individual agreements between institutions, ADEA advises checking the ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools and contacting schools directly for exact program lengths.

Applicants apply to dental school one full year before they plan to matriculate. If you want to start dental school in the fall right after college graduation, your application cycle begins the summer after your junior year.

You do not need to be a science major in college to attend dental school, as long as you complete the required science courses. For course specifics, see our guide to dental school requirements, courses, DAT and shadowing.

Here is ADEA's general four-year undergraduate timeline, paired with the official 2026-27 ADEA AADSAS cycle dates:

• Freshman year: Meet with your health professions advisor, enroll in biology or chemistry courses, join your school's pre-dental club, and shadow or talk with your dentist. In the summer, work or volunteer in a dental clinic or apply to the Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP), a free six-week summer medical and dental preparatory program covering full tuition, housing and meals for eligible freshmen and sophomores.
• Sophomore year: Choose a major (science or non-science) while continuing prerequisite science courses. In the summer, build a budget for the DAT, ADEA AADSAS fees, supplemental fees and interview travel.
• Junior year: Finish biology, chemistry and organic chemistry courses to prepare for the Dental Admission Test (DAT), which a predental student source on ADEA describes as a five-hour exam. Ask faculty or your pre-health committee about letters of evaluation. ADEA AADSAS accepts up to four individual evaluations, or one committee letter packet plus one individual evaluation. The ideal time to take the DAT is late spring of junior year or right after finishing organic chemistry. Your DAT registration is valid for 6 months, you must wait 90 days between retakes, and the test is capped at three attempts.
• Junior year summer (the application launch): Submit your primary application early. Texas residents applying to Texas dental schools use TMDSAS, while applicants to most other US dental schools use the ADEA AADSAS application. For the 2026-27 cycle, the ADEA AADSAS application opens May 12, 2026, and the first day to submit is June 2, 2026. Once your application, fee payment and official undergraduate transcripts arrive, ADEA AADSAS takes 4 to 6 weeks to process your file.
• Senior year: Complete advanced biology courses and degree requirements, attend dental school interviews, and apply for financial aid. For the 2026-27 cycle, the dental school acceptance notification date is December 15, 2026, the application closes February 5, 2027, and the last day to submit official documents is February 11, 2027.

Your dental school interview happens during your senior year of college, after schools review your verified ADEA AADSAS application, DAT scores, letters of evaluation and secondary applications.

According to ADEA's Admissions Process guide, the majority of dental schools require an interview for admission to a class. Timing and format vary by school: interviews are usually conducted by members of the admissions committee and run as one-on-one interviews, group interviews or Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs). You can compare formats and prompts in our guide to 40 dental school interview questions and formats by school.

Notice what ADEA added to the 2026-27 evaluation form: letter writers now rate applicants on 10 attributes in the Liaison Letters portal, including critical thinking, didactic knowledge, integrity, interpersonal skills, maturity, motivation to pursue dentistry, organizational skills, professional demeanor, reaction to criticism and self-awareness. Those same attributes are what admissions committees probe when you sit down for your interview.

Use this four-step checklist from ADEA's timeline and cost guides to prepare for interview season in your senior fall:

• Schedule mock interviews early: Practice out loud through your pre-dental club, university career center or AI mock interviews before your first autumn date.
• Get professional business attire ready: ADEA notes that professional business attire is the norm for dental school interviews.
• Set aside an interview travel fund: For on-site interviews, budget ahead of time for flights, trains or driving, hotel stays near campus, and food so money is not a distraction on interview day.
• Plan for the enrollment deposit: Admission offers begin arriving in December (December 15, 2026 for the 2026-27 cycle). When you accept an offer, most schools require a usually non-refundable deposit of $500 to $2,000 to hold your seat in the first-year class, which is often applied toward your first-year tuition.

Graduating with a DDS or DMD is one part of becoming a practicing dentist. You also must pass national board and clinical licensure exams and meet the requirements of the state board of dentistry where you plan to practice.

Because licensure rules vary by jurisdiction and change over time, the ADA strongly urges dental students and graduates to consult their state board of dentistry directly alongside the ADA's interactive Dental Licensure by State Map.

• Written national board exam: The Integrated National Board Dental Examination (INBDE), administered through the ADA, replaced the older NBDE Parts I and II.
• Clinical and state licensure pathways: Depending on the state, initial licensure pathways on the ADA licensure dashboard include clinical examinations such as the ADEX Dental Examination (into which the Dental Licensure Objective Structured Clinical Examination, or DLOSCE, has been incorporated), Curriculum Integrated Format (CIF) exams, Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE), or completion of a Post-Graduate Year 1 (PGY1) residency.
• Advanced program admission test: Students applying to post-graduate dental residency programs may also take the ADA's Advanced Dental Admission Test (ADAT).

After the four-year DDS or DMD, post-graduate residency training is optional for general dentists in most states, though many graduates choose a one- or two-year general residency to build clinical speed or hospital privileges, and specialists complete at least two to four years (plus two to four additional years for a joint MD or PhD in oral surgery) of advanced training.

According to CODA's Find a Program directory, CODA accredits more than 1,400 dental and dental-related education programs, including 14 advanced dental education disciplines. Here is the official length for every CODA-accredited advanced program where duration is specified:

Becoming a dentist takes at least eight years of schooling, and even longer if you specialize. Tell us how you tested this commitment and how you know the day-to-day reality of dentistry fits you.

• ADEA GoDental: Timeline to Apply
• ADEA GoDental: Combined Degree Programs
• ADEA GoDental: Admissions Process
• ADEA GoDental: Applying to Dental School (ADEA AADSAS 2026-27 Dates)
• ADEA GoDental: Resources and FAQs
• ADEA GoDental: Cost to Apply
• CODA: Dental Education (DDS/DMD) Standards
• CODA: Find a Program and Advanced Dental Education Descriptions
• ADA: Dental Admission Tests and Exams (DAT, INBDE, ADAT)
• ADA Health Policy Institute: Dental Education Data and FAQs
• ADA: Interactive Dental Licensure by State Map