Courtesy Photo District Health Department No. 2 (DHD2) and No. 4 (DHD4) received a grant from the Delta Dental Foundation (DDF) for their dental van. Elisa Dack, community health director with the DHD2 and DHD4, takes this van to do dental assessments for school-age children in eight counties in Northern Michigan.

ALPENA — Michigan is experiencing a shortage of dentists. According to the Delta Dental Foundation (DDF), Michigan residents living in rural areas are the most affected by dental professional shortages.

DDF is a nonprofit branch of Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, a dental coverage organization. According to DDF, the nonprofit is committed to improving access to dental care.

In a recent press release, DDF stated that more than 1.5 million Michigan residents are living in areas with limited access to dental care. Further, DDF notes that Michigan currently has 245 federally designated dental professional shortage areas.

Michigan will need 300 more dentists working in affected areas to meet the dental care needs for residents, according to the DDF press release.

According to data presented by KFF, an independent health policy organization, Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) designations are determined by the ratio of health professionals to population, with nuance given to specific needs of certain populations.

As of December 2024, dental health professionals are only able to meet the needs of 27% of Michigan’s HPSA designations, according to KFF.

In all, KFF reports that there are only five other states with higher federally designated shortage areas than Michigan. These include Texas with 261 designated shortage areas, Florida with 274, Alaska with 337, Missouri with 323, and California with 532.

To try and combat the dental professional shortage in Michigan, Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana is providing student loan repayment programs for private practice dentists, according to the DDF press release. Dentists participating in these repayment programs will work in underserved communities with 15% of their patients covered by Medicaid.

Jeff Johnston, Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana chief science officer, stated in the DDF press release that the cost of dental and hygiene school is continuing to rise and is inaccessible to prospective students despite the need for dental care in the state.

Dr. Eric Knudsen, former Michigan Dental Association president and practicing dentist in Escanaba, explained that the dentist shortage is more about a distribution problem rather than a population problem.

Knudsen explained that there are plenty of dentists in more urban areas of the state. The crux of the problem lies in the difficulty to bring dentists to rural areas where the greatest needs are. He said that not only are rural dental clinics trying to recruit new dentists, but with that comes trying to convince spouses and partners to follow.

Further, dental professional shortages in rural areas exasperate health issues for residents down the road.

“Dental care is health care,” Knudsen said. “Dentistry is all about prevention.”

Knudsen stated that due to long waits for dental care, what would be a simple filling could turn into a root canal for patients. He also noted that hospitals can be affected by this dental professional shortage as well, because if a patient can’t see a dentist for an abscessed tooth, they will turn to the ER. Thus, dental care could end up costing more for patients than what is necessary.

Overall, Knudsen understands why new dental graduates are pulled to metro areas. He explained that they can get paid more, and when the average student debt for a new dental graduate is $300,000, they have big payments to make.

However, Knudsen noted how dentistry is an in-demand industry in rural areas and dentists are never without work. He also said the work is more rewarding, for him, because he gets to have a closer connection with his patients. Sometimes he cares for five generations of a family at his clinic.

“You are important in the community. You are part of it,” Knudsen said. “You are accountable as well…you embrace that.”

Elisa Dack, community health director with the District Health Department No. 2 (DHD2) and No. 4 (DHD4), provides dental assessments and connects community members with dental care in Northeast Michigan.

Dack also helps run an oral public health program with the DHD4 and DHD2. She holds a mobile dentistry license, which allows her to travel to schools to provide dental assessments. The DHD4 and DHD2 were awarded a DDF grant, allowing them to buy a “dental van.” Dack uses this van as part of her oral public health program, traveling to schools in eight counties.

This is one way that Dack and the DHD4 and DHD2 are trying to help bridge gaps in access to dental care in Northeast Michigan.

In Dack’s opinion, she agreed with Knudsen that there is a distribution issue with dentists in Michigan and that Northeast Michigan needs more dental professionals to practice in the area.

“We need more homegrown professionals … they are the ones that appreciate the area,” Dack said.

Dack explained that the distribution issue is widespread in Northern Michigan and affects many counties. In Alpena County, for example, there are 10 practicing dentists and only three are accepting new patients, according to Dack. Only two of those dental clinics accept adult Medicaid.

Overall, to solve the dental professional shortage issue in the state, Dack said that it is not an overnight process.

“We need more (dentistry) education (available in Northern Michigan)…We need more homegrown (dental) professionals…We need more incentives on the education level to get professionals to work in rural areas,” Dack said.

Dack said that the situation is tough for many clinics, as many cannot fit in any new patients without lowering the quality of care for the patients they do have.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.