December 31, 2022, data from the HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) indicated that nearly 69.8 million Americans lived in a dental health HPSA (health professional shortage area).  A dental health HPSA is a population group, geographic area, or facility where residents have substandard dental care access because too few dentists serve the area relative to the population living in the HPSA.  HPSAs in the six-state New England region of the country were home to almost 1.4 million residents, or about 2% of the U.S. population, who lived in dental care shortage areas.  The HRSA estimates that New England HPSAs would need 224 more dentists in order to eliminate the dental care shortage in the region.  This shortfall represented about 1.9% of the nation's dental care shortage.  Further examination of the HRSA's 12/31/22 data provides the following details about New England's dental care shortage:

New England's Dental Care Shortage

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortage
CT	40	481,721	110
ME	96	380,414	59
MA	61	327,538	21
NH	23	35,002	9
RI	13	140,648	23
VT	15	29,428	2
Region	248	1,394,751	224
U.S.	7,313	69,766,605	11,909
% of U.S.	3.4%	2.0%	1.9%

(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)