Arkansas is the state with the worst dental health and has 1,043 active general dentists, according to a ranking from dental provider Express Dentists and data from health policy nonprofit the Kaiser Family Foundation.
To create the ranking, Express Dentists examined 25 indicators of dental health such as water fluoridation, adult Medicaid dental benefits and employment levels of dentists.
The Kaiser Family Foundation recorded the number of active dentists in seven categories, including general dentistry, oral surgery and orthodontics. The data was collected as part of a special request from the American Dental Association and uses data from 2021.
Here are the number of active general dentists in the states with the worst dental health, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation and Express Dentists:
1. Arkansas: 1,043
2. West Virginia: 729
3. Louisiana: 1,752
4. Mississippi: 1,028
5. Texas: 12,541
6. Alaska: 470
7. Alabama: 1,603
8. Montana: 502
9. Maine: 612
10. Kentucky: 1,977