Theoretically, visiting a dentist should help you keep your natural teeth. Then again, the lack of a strong correlation between the two variables shown here suggests otherwise. Perhaps those who have worse oral health actually visit the dentist more often to address the issues they’ve encountered. After all, in order to have all your natural teeth extracted, you have to visit the dentist, right? Unless you do it at home, which is a really bad idea.

Despite the lack of correlation, I think the maps are still interesting to view independently. You can identify states and metropolitan areas where people don’t visit the dentist. Or you can determine how likely you are to be donning complete dentures later in life.

Data source: http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/ (2010 GIS data)