Health Outcomes
Complete Tooth Loss (Adults 65+) by County — US Rankings
CDC PLACES 2023 · Age-adjusted prevalence · All 3,144 US counties
Total tooth loss among adults aged 65 and older is the most stable long-arc oral-health measure in the CDC dataset. It reflects two generations of dental access, fluoridation policy, smoking history, and income. The age window (65+) is fixed by the survey design, so this measure is not age-adjusted; it is a window into the oral-health outcomes of older Americans specifically. The highest-prevalence counties cluster in central Appalachia and the rural South — the same geography that shows up in most chronic-disease rankings, but tooth loss arrives earlier and is more visible in everyday life.
How this ranking is built
Source: CDC PLACES 2023 release. Methodology: BRFSS survey responses pooled across years, fitted with a small-area statistical model, age-adjusted to the 2000 US standard population. Confidence intervals (95%) are shown for each county — wider intervals indicate more uncertainty in the modeled estimate, typically driven by smaller populations.
Lowest All Teeth Lost (adults 65+) Rates — Top 100 Counties
Counties with the lowest reported all teeth lost (adults 65+) prevalence — these counties show the most favorable position on this measure.
Best 100 counties for All Teeth Lost (adults 65+).
Highest All Teeth Lost (adults 65+) Rates — Bottom 100 CountiesCounties with the highest reported all teeth lost (adults 65+) prevalence.
Worst 100 counties for All Teeth Lost (adults 65+).
What this ranking suggests
Tooth loss is a downstream outcome of access and cumulative cost — most cases reflect untreated dental disease that progressed to extraction. The DENTAL ranking (annual dental visit) is the contemporary access signal; tooth loss is what that access drought looks like a generation later.
Methodology notes & limitations
Estimates are statistical model outputs, not direct measurements. Small counties have wider confidence intervals; treat narrow rank differences in those rows as within-noise. Counties where the underlying population is too small to support modeling are suppressed entirely (about 1% of US counties). All measures are age-adjusted to the 2000 US standard population. The PLACES dataset uses BRFSS self-reported data — self-report introduces known direction-of-bias in some measures (BMI is under-reported; binge drinking is under-reported), but the bias is roughly uniform across counties so ranking comparability is preserved. See the methodology page for full data-pipeline documentation.
Data source: CDC PLACES 2023 release. Measure ID: TEETHLOST.