According to the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association, dentists are gathering in record numbers these days: The largest U.S. medical meeting held in 2010 was the Greater New York Dental Meeting, which drew 58,135 attendees. Three other dental meetings—those of Chicago, Massachusetts, and California dental societies—also made the top 10 largest U.S. medical meetings on HCEA’s top 50 list.

In second place was the Radiological Society of North America, with 58,044. Rounding out the top five are FIME, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Society for Neuroscience.

Overall, the average total attendance was up 5 percent in 2010 over 2009, to 19,512. Average reported professional attendance also was up 7 percent to 13,227.

HCEA ranked the medical meetings by counting all of a convention’s registered participants, including exhibitors. It used professional attendance to determine rank in the case of a tie.