US Dental Deserts: Access & Affordability Atlas (2026, county-level)

County-level dataset for the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia (3,144 counties and county equivalents) crossing three layers at their native granularity: active Dental Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) designations from the HRSA Dental Health HPSA detail file (frozen snapshot dated 2026-07-30 — designation count, max HPSA score 0–26, breakdown by geographic / population-group / facility type), median household income from the U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates (table B19013), and state-level dental price and Medicaid benchmarks from the open Real Dental Costs series (Restorative Cost Index, single-implant state average, Medicaid participation and adult benefit level), with a city benchmark annotation for the 206 metros of the companion city dataset. Every row carries a data_levels field labeling the granularity of each column group (hpsa=county; income=county; price=state; medicaid=state; city_benchmark=city) — state figures are benchmarks and are never presented as county prices. A county is flagged is_dental_desert_flag=true when three transparent criteria are met simultaneously: at least one active Dental HPSA designation, county median income below the national county median, and state Restorative Cost Index above the 51-state median. No composite score, no interpolation, no estimated value: suppressed or undetermined source cells are left empty. All figures re-derived by an independent verification script with zero divergence before release. Companion page and county lookup tool: https://realdentalcosts.com/en/dental-deserts-atlas/ — Methodology: https://realdentalcosts.com/en/methodology/