March 31, 2025, data from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) revealed that more than 59.7 million Americans lived in communities or settings designated as dental health professional shortage areas (HPSA).  This designation is given to population groups, geographic areas, or facilities where with access to dental care is limited because too few dentists serve the HPSA relative to the size of its population.  Southeastern U.S dental HPSA's were home to over 22.7 million residents, accounting for just over 38% of the entire U.S. population that lived in dental care shortfall areas.  The HRSA estimates that HPSAs in the Southeast would need 4,018 more dentists in order to eliminate the dental care shortfall in the region.  Here is a state-level summary of the Southeast's dental care shortfall:

The Dental Care Shortfall in the Southeast

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortfall
AL	89	751,675	137
AR	132	580,085	103
FL	274	5,911,481	1,259
GA	184	1,963,457	411
KY	208	922,811	209
LA	163	1,869,995	252
MS	148	1,401,634	178
NC	189	2,911,480	576
SC	90	1,557,360	221
TN	143	1,941,163	314
VA	131	2,182,344	223
WV	117	749,549	135
Region	1,868	22,743,034	4,018
U.S.	7,054	59,718,174	10,143

(1) Designated Geographic, Population Group, and Facility HPSAs 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)

May 2024 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported dental assistant employment in the United States at more than 287,780.  The four-state Southwestern U.S. accounted for roughly 48,200 of those dental assistant jobs.  BLS data revealed the Southwestern U.S. to be a rather weak one for dental assistant pay, as only one state in the region registered a mean annual wage level for dental assistants that was better than the profession's national average of $48,225.  Moreover, all other states in the region ranked among the fifteen worst states in the nation for dental assistant mean annual wage levels. A deeper dive into May 2024 BLS data reveals the following details about dental assistant pay in the Southwestern U.S.:

Dental Assistant Pay in the Southwestern U.S.

State	# Employed	Mean Annual Wage	Wage Rank*
AZ	7,480	$50,040	17th
NM	2,010	$42,290	43rd
OK	4,540	$42,980	39th
TX	31,360	$42,520	41st
U.S.	287,780	$48,225	-------

(*) annual mean wage ranking among the 50 states and the District of Columbia

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OES. Data extracted on May 30, 2025