Mississippi ranks last for dental visits; Massachusetts ranks first
John Egan
Mississippi has something to frown about.
According to data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, residents of Mississippi were the least likely of people from any state to have visited a dentist in the past year. Meanwhile, residents of Massachusetts were the most likely to have seen a dentist.
“Health insurance appears to play a role in whether Americans go to the dentist,” Gallup says. “States where residents are the most likely to visit the dentist also have some of the lowest uninsured rates in the nation.”
The top 10 states for dental visits have an average health insurance rate of nearly 72 percent. That compares with an average of 56 percent in the bottom 10 states.
However, Gallup notes that the Well-Being Index confirms whether an adult has health insurance, but not dental insurance. Some health insurance plans include dental coverage; others don’t.
The state-by-state rates of dental visits were based on data from the first half of 2011 collected during more than 177,000 interviews with American adults.
The survey found that 51.9 percent of Mississippi adults had seen a dentist in the past 12 months, compared with a national average of 65 percent. Other states in the bottom 10 were:
• Louisiana — 54.8 percent.
• West Virginia — 55.4 percent.
• Texas — 56.1 percent.
• Alabama — 56.3 percent.
• Kentucky — 56.3 percent.
• Arkansas — 56.6 percent.
• Oklahoma — 56.8 percent.
• Tennessee — 57.9 percent.
• Missouri — 58.6 percent.
Massachusetts led the top 10, with 75.3 percent of adults reporting they’d seen a dentist in the past 12 months.
Other states in the top 10 were:
• Connecticut — 74.4 percent.
• Hawaii — 73.3 percent.
• Minnesota — 72.3 percent.
• Rhode Island — 71.6 percent.
• Wisconsin — 71.1 percent.
• New Jersey — 71 percent.
• New Hampshire — 70.6 percent.
• New York — 69.2 percent.
• Utah — 69.1 percent.
