Throughout the world there are millions of dentists working throughout the national health services of their respective countries. And also dentists working within private dentistry in these countries.
Of course not all countries are as fortunate as the United Kingdom for example by having a vibrant and world respected National Health Service (NHS), where the youngest, poorest and most at risk in society can still get basic, vital free dental healthcare.
Now, throughout the varied national dentalcare world, and the world of private dentistry and cosmetic dentistry, there are a total of 1.8 million dentists.
That is not a huge amount by any stretch of the imagination. It equates to about 29 dentists per 100 000 people statistically. That is spread throughout the world. Of course this spread is not even. With Western Cultures and society of course having the best spread and availability of dentists.

It is not just a numbers game of course. With the population of China alone around the 1.3 billion mark, they are going to theoretically need more dentists than anyone else. And they have some of the most dentists working there, however what counts is dentists working per head of population.
Again, Dentists working in the West in general will have far higher qualifications and be spoiled with the standards of settings for their dental practices and dental businesses. It is not an uncommon sight in China to see street dentists carrying out basic dental care for some of China’s population.

The U.S, China and Brazil had the most dentists in a study carried out in 2004.
To put into context though, there are ten times more dentists per person working in Brazil than in China. Yet the population of China is larger than any other country. And the United States of America has double the amount of dentists of any country in the world.
It is results though that count, and Brazil is still in huge trouble with it’s dentistry figures. Thirty million Brazilians have never been to a dentist, sixty million never brush their teeth and eight million are toothless.

The regions in most trouble in regards to lack of adequate dental facilities and number of dentists working is in Africa. It is not unusual to see just 1 dentist per 100k people in parts of Africa.

Conditions vary greatly for dentists throughout the world. The UK is a highly desirable place for dentists to relocate because of the huge salries they can earn, the high standards of living and the chance to work in the private sector and the nhs dentistry sector.