A dressing apparatus capable of bringing an overall dressing surface of a dresser into uniform sliding contact with a polishing surface of a polishing pad and capable of uniformly dressing the overall polishing surface of the polishing pad is disclosed. The dressing apparatus includes a dresser configured to rub against a polishing surface to dress the polishing surface that is used for polishing a substrate, a dresser shaft that applies a load to the dresser, at least one load-applying device configured to apply a downward load to a part of a peripheral portion of the dresser, and an operation controller configured to control operation of the load-applying device.