A large share of people in the U.S. may face barriers to accessing dental care due to limited transportation options and the unequal distribution of dental clinics, according to a study published in SSM - Population Health.
Improving access to dental care may require efforts such as expanded transit options and greater use of mobile dental clinics, the authors wrote.
“We found that a substantial proportion of the U.S. population lacks access to public transit, creating additional barriers for vulnerable groups in accessing necessary dental care,” wrote the authors, led by Md Shahinoor Rahman, PhD, of the Harvard University School of Dental Medicine Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology (SSM Popul Health, March 10, 2026, Vol. 33, 101907).
Transportation and socioeconomic status can influence whether a person can access dental care. Although suburban areas are often viewed as affluent, nearly 40% of the uninsured population live there, where poverty and limited transportation can restrict access to care. This study examined disparities in travel times by car and public transit to the nearest dental clinic across different neighborhood types and socioeconomic conditions to better understand transportation-related barriers to dental care.
The study used the U.S. IQVIA dental provider database, updated in October 2023, which included nearly 206,000 active dentists and detailed information on dental practice locations across the U.S. Researchers calculated travel times from block group population centers to the nearest dental clinic using two transportation modes, including driving and public transit, they wrote.
Driving times were estimated using historical traffic data. To better understand community characteristics, the researchers incorporated data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey five-year estimates for 2022 and Medicaid’s coverage of non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) services. The data included the adult population size, racial and ethnic composition, and the percentage of uninsured adults for each block group.
The national mean driving time to the nearest dental clinic was 5.8 minutes across all block groups. Average driving times were 2.8 minutes in urban areas, 3.4 minutes in suburban areas, and 10.5 minutes in rural areas. About 49.3 million U.S. adults were found to lack public transit access to dental care, and where transit is available, the mean travel time was 18.1 minutes, they wrote.
Furthermore, areas with high social deprivation were 1.7 times more likely (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.5 to 2) to be driving time hotspots (areas where traffic congestion predictably occurs, slowing the pace of traffic) and 3.7 times more likely (95% CI: 3.2 to 4.3) to face public transit barriers. Suburban and rural block groups were 1.4 times (95% CI: 1.3 to 1.6) and 2.4 times (95% CI: 2.2 to 2.7), respectively, more likely than urban areas to be public transit time hotspots.
The study had limitations. The researchers measured dental care access using travel time alone. Future research should consider factors like dentist availability, patient volume, appointment access, and insurance participation, the authors added.
“Addressing these transportation barriers will require better alignment between transportation and healthcare policies to improve public transit systems, incentivize dentists to practice in underserved rural areas, expand NEMT benefits within public and private insurance programs, and increase the availability of mobile dental clinics,” Rahman and colleagues concluded.
