Margot Sanger-Katz in the National Journal states according to the Pew Children’s Dental Campaign, dental disease is the largest unmet health need in the US among both children and adults. The poor, the young, the old, and those in rural America are the worst off.

In a world of medical priorities and health care, dentistry takes can normally take a back seat, and in rural America sometimes appears to not even be on the bus. Writer Margot Sanger-Katz states that the US faces a shortage of dentists that is particularly acute in poor, rural regions. “Huge pockets of the country have few (or no) providers. The federal government counts 4,503 mostly rural regions where more than 3,000 people share one dentist,” she notes, “making it tough for many residents to find someone to fix their teeth.”