According to September 30, 2020 data from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), nearly 60 million Americans lived in over 6,400 areas or settings designated as a dental care Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA). An HPSA is a geographic area, population group, or facility where access to healthcare services is substandard because it lacks a sufficient number of primary care, dental or mental health care providers. In the case of dental care, HRSA designation criteria is based upon the population within the HPSA relative to the number of dental care providers that service the area. For HRSA purposes, dental care providers include Dentists and dental auxiliaries (any non-dentist staff employed by the dentist to assist in the operation of the practice). Although the population-to-provider ratio needed to qualify for designation varies by HPSA type (geographic, population or facility), all HPSAs with a dental care shortage designation have a population-to-provider ratio that meets or exceeds certain thresholds set by federal regulations. Areas designated as an HPSA are eligible to participate in federal programs aimed at attracting more dental care providers to work with these medically underserved populations. The HRSA estimates that, as of September 30, 2020, all dental care HPSAs in the U.S. would need about 10,700 more dental care providers to eliminate all shortage designations.
HPSAs in the seven-state Great Plains region account for about 6.3% of the U.S. population who live in dental care shortage areas. The HRSA estimates that HPSAs in the Great Plains states would need just over 700 more dental care providers in order to eliminate the dental care shortage in the region. Here is a summary look at the dental care shortage in the Great Plains region:
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| The Dental Care Shortage in the Great Plains Region |
| State | (1) HPSAs | (2) Population | (3) Shortage |
| IA | 131 | 412.9 | 66 |
| KS | 182 | 601.1 | 78 |
| MN | 171 | 768.1 | 144 |
| MO | 314 | 1,725.2 | 373 |
| NE | 68 | 1.7 | 0 |
| ND | 66 | 127.7 | 14 |
| SD | 71 | 151.2 | 32 |
| Region | 1,003 | 3,787.9 | 707 |
| U.S. | 6,487 | 59,941.1 | 10,716 |
