The Dental Implant Access Gap: cost burden and specialist supply in 50 US states, 2026

A 50-state dataset pairing two measures that are rarely published side by side:the per-capita supply of oral and maxillofacial surgeons in each US state, andthe cost of a dental implant there expressed as a share of median householdincome. Medicaid adult dental benefit status is carried alongside. Fifteen states fall below the 50-state median on specialist supply and above iton cost burden: Ohio, Michigan, Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana, Missouri, SouthCarolina, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Montanaand Wyoming. Those fifteen states and the fifteen that do best on both measuresdo not overlap on median household income by a single dollar: the first grouptops out at $75,532 and the second begins at $76,881. Oral surgeon supplycorrelates +0.668 with state median household income and +0.646 with overalldentist supply. Wyoming has seven oral and maxillofacial surgeons statewide,1.19 per 100,000, last of fifty; New Hampshire leads at 3.25. The national rubric used to rate state Medicaid adult dental benefits scoresfourteen service categories and ends at dentures. Implants are not among them,so a state can hold the most extensive adult dental benefit American policydefines and still cover nothing above a denture. Eleven states are ratedextensive; exactly one of those is among the fifteen double-bind states. NewYork covers implants when medically necessary and publishes per-code amountstotalling $2,200 per tooth. Method note: the cost-burden axis is largely income by construction, becausethe underlying cost model carries one geographic adjustment and 44 of 50 statesshare an identical sticker price. That axis is not presented as a discovery.Specialist supply is independently measured from an unrelated source and knowsnothing about pricing or income, so the relationship between the two axes isthe part that carries weight. Derived columns (per-capita rates, ranks, cost-as-share-of-income, quadrantclassification) are arithmetic performed by the author on sourced inputs and arelabelled as derived throughout. Census margins of error are included and are notpropagated into derived percentages. Correlations are correlations; no causalclaim is made. Primary sources: US Census Bureau American Community Survey 2024 and 2025population estimates; KFF via an American Dental Association Health PolicyInstitute special data request; the CareQuest Institute / ADA HPI / Center forHealth Care Strategies Medicaid adult dental benefit rubric. Full method, limitations and per-source detail:https://dentalimplantcalc.com/dental-implant-access-gap/ Conflicts of interest: none. The publishing site carries no advertising fromdental providers, no lead capture and no affiliate relationships.