Are There Rural-Urban Differences in Dentist Supply?

The purpose of this project was to examine the supply of dentists in the Commonwealth of Kentucky at the county level. Counties with shortages in dentist supply were determined and associated factors were examined.Several county-level variables were analyzed. These included total number of dentists, total county population, dentist to population ratio, dentist supply shortage, median household income, median age, percent of Medicaid enrollees, rurality, oral cancer crude incidence and mortality rates per 100,000 and percent of adults missing six or more teeth.This project showed that 42 of the 120 counties in Kentucky had shortages in dentist supply. Also, results found that counties with higher median age and that were urban were more likely to have shortage in dentist supply. In addition, this study showed a significant association between percent of adults missing six or more teeth with rural counties, counties with higher median age and lower median income.