There are a total of 4,878 dental care Health Professional Shortage Areas, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Dental HPSAs are defined as a population ratio of one dentist to 5,000 or more people. To eliminate the nearly 5,000 dental HPSAs in the country it would take an estimated 7,300 additional dentists, according to HHS.
Here 30 statistics on the 10 states with the most dental HPSAs.
California
• HPSAs: 341
• Percent of need met: 41.25 percent
• Dentists needed to remove HSPA designation: 193
Texas
• HPSAs: 240
• Percent of need met: 63.72 percent
• Dentists needed to remove HSPA designation: 349
Florida
• HPSAs: 220
• Percent of need met: 17.25 percent
• Dentists needed to remove HSPA designation: 860
Michigan
• HPSAs: 212
• Percent of need met: 41.79 percent
• Dentists needed to remove HSPA designation: 128
Arizona
• HPSAs: 170
• Percent of need met: 31.65 percent
• Dentists needed to remove HSPA designation: 431
Illinois
• HPSAs: 161
• Percent of need met: 30.83 percent
• Dentists needed to remove HSPA designation: 401
Missouri
• HPSAs: 160
• Percent of need met: 24.51 percent
• Dentists needed to remove HSPA designation: 286
Pennsylvania
• HPSAs: 160
• Percent of need met: 40.26 percent
• Dentists needed to remove HSPA designation: 302
Georgia
• HPSAs: 148
• Percent of need met: 27.05 percent
• Dentists needed to remove HSPA designation: 280
Tennessee
• HPSAs: 140
• Percent of need met: 25.79 percent
• Dentists needed to remove HSPA designation: 353