How the county dental access reports are built

We collect California NPI-1 records from CMS NPPES using the Dentist taxonomy description. The report keeps active records with a taxonomy code beginning 1223 and assigns each record to its California practice-location address.

Mailing addresses do not determine the community count. This matters when a provider receives mail in one city but lists a practice location in another. Duplicate NPIs within one community are counted once.

NPPES is an enrollment registry, not an active-workforce survey. A record does not establish appointment availability, weekly hours, plan participation, or whether a dentist is accepting new patients.

Dental taxonomy codes are grouped into general dentistry, pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, oral surgery, periodontics, endodontics, and prosthodontics. A specialist taxonomy takes precedence over the general category so the specialty columns add up to the total NPI-1 count.

Taxonomy is self-reported through NPPES. The specialty table describes the federal record and does not replace a current California license lookup.

Each community rate is the active NPI-1 record count divided by that community's population, multiplied by 10,000, and rounded to one decimal place. County report rates use the combined population of every named community in the table.

Incorporated-city and full-county estimates come from the California Department of Finance E-1 release for January 1, 2026. Census-designated places use the 2020 Decennial Census. Each report states the share of the full county population represented by its community denominator.

Directory practice counts come from published Central Valley Dentists office profiles. They support navigation and are not part of the provider-rate calculation. One practice may have several dentists, and one dentist may work at more than one office.

Dental Health Professional Shortage Area counts come from HRSA's county listing. Geographic-area, population-group, and facility designations are counted separately. A designation is not a provider count.