Kaiser: 10K more dentists needed for U.S. shortage areas

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released the latest data on the number of areas in the U.S. and territories that are considered dental care health professional shortage areas (HPSAs). More than 5,800 such areas require over 10,800 additional dentists to address these care needs as of December 31, 2017.

Larger states such as California and Texas have the highest number of dental care HPSA designations, but a comparison of the data shows that Florida and Arizona have more people in need of care.

10,000 more dentists needed

For an area to be considered an HPSA, it must have a population-to-dentist ratio of 5,000 to 1 or greater, according to U.S. government regulations. In some communities with high needs, that ratio drops to 4,000 to 1.

There are 5,866 such areas in the U.S. and territories, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Bureau of Health Workforce, Health Resources and Service Administration, cited by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Almost 63 million people are in need of care in these areas.

California has the most areas needing dental providers, but Florida has the greatest total population needing care and requires the most dentists to address the population (see table below).

In the tables, the number of practitioners needed to remove the HPSA designation column shows the number of additional dentists needed in a state (or in the District of Columbia) to bring the population-to-dentist ratio to 5,000 to 1.

Smaller U.S. states generally fare better in terms of number of designated provider shortage areas (see table below). Overall, Nebraska has the smallest population needing care (7,816), but that state has 81 dental HPSAs. Nebraska is the only state that needs no additional dental practitioners to treat the population needing care.

To see the data in full or to create your own reports, visit the Kaiser Family Foundation website.

DrBicuspid.com will continue our coverage of this newly released Kaiser Family Foundation data with a look at the number of dental practitioners and specialists in the U.S.