The ADA average for employee dentists is around 160k and that's about right. That includes people working a variety of days (1 day - 7 days) in a variety of settings. The owner comp the ADA reports is usually low because it's the owner's compensation without distributions.
Most new graduates start out between 500-650/day depending on the area for a while and then the base drops off. If the new graduate is willing to move to a rural area they may find an offer as high as 800 (maybe even $1000/day) but these opportunities are often not what they seem (difficult to uproot your entire life to move to the middle of nowhere to find out the job sucks and you hate the town and you have no social net). I've met new grads making less than 100k a year as they bounce from one bad job to the next (more common than you think), and I've met new grads making more than 200k. Part of this depends on luck, who you know, and how geographically flexible you are.
Many large corps don't actually pay a "salary", instead they pay a draw that calculates to ~120-180k/year, but if you don't produce enough dentistry, you may not be paid as much as you thought you would.
What most associates find is that unless they go the corporate route, they have to secure multiple part-time jobs to make a full-time schedule. Both part-time jobs offer a similar base for 6 months - let's say that's 550/day, and then the base expires. At one job, the associate is only producing enough to average collections of $1600/day 3 days a week and at the other job they are making enough to average $2900/day two days a week. That works out to be $480/day at the first gig and $870/day at the second. So they're making about $3180/week, 48 weeks a year (assuming 2 weeks of unpaid time off/sick leave and 14 days of forced time off due to office closure for Holidays) for a total of 152k/year with no benefits (PT everywhere and dental offices don't usually offer any benefits anyway).
Some associates find that second job where they're producing 2900/day right out of the gate. Some associates find a place where they can produce 5k/day right away, and some bounce from one $1500/day gig to another for YEARS until they finally say F it, and buy their own job (a practice).