Overview

The Dental Match is a service to help applicants obtain first-year positions in postdoctoral dental education programs of their choice, and to help programs obtain applicants of their choice. The Dental Match is supervised by a group of eight Sponsoring Organizations and has been endorsed by the ADA and ADEA.

Key Dates

①  Register

There is no registration process required for dental schools. In September, the primary contact person NMS has on file for each U.S. and Canadian dental school receives personalized login credentials and instructions for accessing the NMS Match System.

②   Manage Your Account

After logging in to the NMS Match System, you can update your school information, including updating contact information and adding secondary users to your account.

③   List of Registered Students

Schools can log in to the NMS Match System to access their List of Registered Students. This list provides the names and graduation dates of current and former students from your school who have registered to participate in the 2027 Dental Match. The list is updated in real-time as additional students register for the Dental Match.

You must review the list to verify the eligibility of the students to participate in the Dental Match for postdoctoral positions beginning in 2027. Instructions for making any required corrections to the list are provided on the Match website. The List of Registered Students should initially be reviewed by October 1, 2026, and periodically thereafter as additional students register.

④   Match Results

NMS uses an established and proven matching algorithm to process the Rank Order Lists submitted by applicants and programs. Applicants will be matched to the most preferred program on their Rank Order List that ranks them and does not fill all its positions with applicants it prefers. Similarly, each program will be matched with their most preferred applicant(s) that do not match to programs the applicants prefer.

Match results for each Phase of the Match are provided to you by email and on the Match website. When Match results are released, the following information will be available to you:

• A report showing whether each of your students obtained a position, and if so, the program where they matched.
• A list of positions remaining available in the Post-Match Process, so you can assist any students who are still seeking a placement.