Action for Dental Health: Do More Providers Mean More Care?

As attention to the dental crisis in America increases, a "shortage of dentists" is frequently cited as a major barrier to access to care for underserved populations. Proponents of this view further state that retirement among Baby Boomer dentists will worsen the problem. This then leads to calls for alternative providers to solve this workforce shortage. But is the size of the dentist workforce really a major factor affecting access disparities? The facts cast serious doubt on that notion.

• Mississippi ranks 17th in improving access to dental care for Medicaid children. The portion of Medicaid kids with a dental visit went from 22 percent in 2000 to 43 percent in 2011, despite the fact that Mississippi has the biggest dentist shortage, in terms of the percent of the population un-served, according to the government’s Health Professions Shortage Area (HPSA) methodology.
• States that had increases in the percent of the population un-served according to the HPSA methodology actually did better in terms of access for children covered by Medicaid than those that had decreases in dental HPSAs.
• Access to dental care among Medicaid children actually increased in 47 out of 50 states between 2000 and 2011.
• Between 2010 and 2012, the portion of the US population considered unserved by a dentist actually decreased to less than 10 percent, lower than the equivalent measure for primary medical care providers.
• Nationally, 40 percent of dentists report that their practices can accommodate more patients. That percentage has increased substantially in the past five years.

If the numbers of HPSAs and dentists do not correlate to access to dental care, what can be done to address the dental crisis in America? This year, the American Dental Association launched a major campaign, Action for Dental Health, to achieve a specific set of bold goals to dramatically reduce untreated dental disease in America by providing care now to people suffering with untreated disease, strengthening and expanding the public/private safety net to provide more care to more Americans, and bringing dental health education and disease prevention into communities. Action for Dental Health will demonstrate measureable success in improving dental health in underserved communities without major increases in the numbers of dentists or by adding additional providers to treat cavities, by better utilizing and improving resources already available.

Learn more about Action for Dental Health.

View ADA Health Policy Resources Center analyses relating to access to dental care.