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JADA Continuing Education

Background. The authors examine urban and rural variation in the number of dentists in relation to the U.S. population. They focus on the number and distribution of dentists who practice in rural counties.

Methods. The authors divided U.S. counties into categories based on nine rural-urban continuum codes. They based county-level estimates of population on the 2000 census. They based county-level estimates of dentists on the Distribution of Dentists in the U.S. by Region and State, 2000—a report resulting from the annual census of dentists conducted by the American Dental Association.

Results. Although dentists were found to be more concentrated in urban areas, 84.7 percentage of the population living in the most rural counties lived in a county with one or more private practice dentists.

Conclusions. Private practice dentists are distributed widely across rural areas and are available to a large proportion of the population living in these areas.

Practice Implications. A combination of population and per capita income largely determine the viability of a private dental practice located in a rural area. In areas in which this combination is insufficient, publicly funded or philanthropic programs will be necessary to ensure access to dental services.

Key Words: Dental work force; rural; geographic distribution; urban

Abbreviations: ADA: American Dental Association • DOD: Distribution of Dentists • FIPS: Federal Information Processing Standards • NHSC: National Health Service Corps • USDA: U.S. Department of Agriculture

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