Dentex is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Sparidae, which includes the seabreams and porgies.

[1] S. dentex had been described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th Edition of his Systema Naturae from the Mediterranean Sea.

[3] This genus is placed in the family Sparidae within the order Spariformes by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.

[3] The largest species in the genus is the pink dentex (D. gibbosus) with a maximum published fork length of 106 cm (42 in) while the smallest is D. fourmanoiri which has a maximum published standard length of 21.5 cm (8.5 in).

[7] Dentex sea breams are found in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean, from Europe to Namibia, and in the Eastern Indian and Western Pacific Ocean from Japan south to Australia.