According to December 31, 2022, data from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), over 69.7 million Americans lived in areas or settings designated as dental health professional shortage areas (HPSA).  A dental health HPSA is a geographic area, population group, or facility where access to dental care is substandard because it lacks a sufficient number of dentists relative to the size of the HPSA population.  HPSAs in the seven-state Great Plains region accounted for about 6.6% of the U.S. population who lived in dental care shortage areas.  The HRSA estimates that HPSAs in the Great Plains states would need 763 more dentists in order to eliminate the dental care shortage in the region.  This shortfall represented about 6.4% of the national dental care shortage.  Here is a summary look at the Great Plains region's dental care shortage:

The Great Plains Region's Dental Care Shortage

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortage
IA	154	451,729	76
KS	177	590,678	82
MN	208	1,126,338	165
MO	344	2,077,052	387
NE	80	1,562	0
ND	71	134,663	12
SD	87	246,126	41
Region	1,121	4,628,148	763
U.S.	7,313	69,766,605	11,909

(1) Designated Geographic, Population Group, and Facility HPSAs with a dental care shortage

(2) Population of designated HPSAs

(3) Dental Care practitioners needed to remove HPSA Designation

Source:  Designated HPSA Quarterly Summary, 12/31/22 (HRSA)