The Salary of Orthodontists

Orthodontists are the largest group of specialists in dentistry, with an estimated 7,000 of them in the United States as of 2008, reports the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2010-11 occupational outlook handbook. The bureau estimates that this number will rise by 20 percent by 2018. The average salary for an orthodontist varies depending on where she works, with dentist offices, general medical hospitals and physician offices being the top three areas of employment.

National Average

• The average national annual salary for an orthodontist is $206,190. This works out to an hourly wage of $99.13. Orthodontists in the bottom 10th percentile make an average of $102,150 a year, while those in the 90th percentile made a minimum of $166,400.

Dentist Offices

• Dentist offices employ the vast majority of orthodontists--a whopping 97 percent. Here, their average hourly wage is $100.44, which works out to an annual salary of $208,910.

Hospitals

• Sometimes hospitals will employ an in-house orthodontist to deal with medical emergencies of the mouth, such as teeth that have been knocked out during an accident. The average annual salary of an orthodontist in a hospital is $113,580, meaning they bring in $54.61 an hour.

Physicians' Offices

• A minority of orthodontists work in a doctor's office. They're also the lowest paid of all orthodontists in the top three categories of employment, raking in just $100,260 annually, or $48.20 an hour.