March 31, 2025, data available from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) indicated that over 59.7 million Americans lived in areas designated as dental health professional shortage areas (HPSA).  A dental health HPSA is a population group, geographic unit, or facility where the community has poor access to basic dental care because not enough dentists serve the area relative to the HPSA's population.  HPSAs in the six-state Far Western U.S. had more than 7 million residents who lived in dental care shortage areas.  The HRSA estimates that HPSAs in the Far West would need more than 1,000 additional dentists in order to eliminate the dental care shortfall in the region.  From the HRSA's March 31, 2025, data, here is a state-level summary of the dental care shortfall in the Far Western U.S.:

The Dental Care Shortfall in the Far Western U.S.

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortfall
AK	339	411,622	59
CA	529	2,740,227	427
HI	32	196,213	33
NV	65	797,261	154
OR	137	1,029,448	158
WA	192	1,908,466	194
Region	1,294	7,083,237	1,025
U.S.	7,054	59,718,174	10,143

(1) HRSA-designated Geographic Units, Population Groups, and Facilities with a dental care shortfall

(2) Population of designated HPSAs

(3) Dental Care practitioners needed to remove HPSA Designation

Source:  Designated HPSA Quarterly Summary, 3/31/25 (HRSA)