Data released by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) reported that, as of March 31, 2025, more than 59.7 million Americans resided in settings or communities designated as dental health professional shortage areas (HPSA).  A dental health HPSA is a population group, facility, or geographic area where dental care access is limited because too few dentists serve the area relative to the population of the HPSA.  Dental health HPSAs in the five-state Rocky Mountain region were home to just over 1.8 million residents, or approximately 3% of the U.S. population who lived in dental care shortfall areas.  The HRSA estimates that HPSAs in the five Rocky Mountain states would need 207 additional dentists to eliminate the dental care shortfall in the region.  Here is a state-level look at the dental care shortfall in the Rocky Mountain region:

The Dental Care Shortfall in the Rocky Mountain Region

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortfall
CO	109	884,783	85
ID	96	471,159	60
MT	115	241,855	32
UT	56	167,532	23
WY	26	47,162	7
Region	402	1,812,491	207
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)