The Academy of General Dentistry (AGD), Chicago, has released its updated statistical map called "The Economic Contribution of the Dentistry Profession in 2006." The map details how many employees, broken down into numbers per congressional district and state, work in the dental profession. The map also provides figures for the annual payroll of these employees. The data shows how much the dentistry profession contributes to each congressional district and state, both in terms of number employed and payroll totals. Nationwide, the dentistry profession employs more than 786,000 workers. Total wages paid to dentistry professionals are in excess of $33 billion.

The map can be found on the AGD's Web site. By clicking on any state, online visitors can find employment data organized by state and congressional district or view a chart listing totals state-by-state.

Copies of statistics from every congressional district have been delivered to each legislator's office, along with a copy of the AGD's fact sheets on its legislative goals for the second session of the 110th Congress, including enactment of Deamonte's Law (HR 2371), the Children's Dental Health Improvement Act (S 739/HR 1781), and the Meth Mouth bill (S 1906/HR 3186).     

"This is the third year that the AGD has compiled these statistics," said AGD President Vincent Mayher, DMD, MAGD. "These numbers show legislators how many of their constituents are employed by the dental profession, which is important information for legislators as they consider AGD's legislative priorities for this year and the organization's overall goal of better access to oral health care." Data for many counties is not available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics because there were too few persons listed for that county.

The AGD compiled this data from the 2006 US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, and Occupational Employment Statistics Survey. The county employment data was converted into congressional districts, and then added together to determine the number of oral health care workers who are employed in each district.