Tooth loss statistics in South Florida reflect a broader national trend. Tooth loss among older adults in the United States has declined over time.
A 2024 Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) study using BRFSS data found that complete edentulism among adults aged 65 and older dropped from 16.36% in 2012 to 13.54% in 2020.
However, the remaining burden is still significant and unevenly distributed.
The CDC’s 2024 Oral Health Surveillance Report estimated that 15.2% of adults aged 65 and older were edentulous between 2017 and March 2020, with much higher rates among adults aged 75 and older, people living in poverty, those with less than a high school education, current smokers, and non-Hispanic Black older adults.
For South Florida, the best public small-area evidence suggests a large and persistent need for tooth replacement, especially among older adults.
Florida’s 2024 state estimate for adults 65+ who had all teeth removed due to decay or gum disease was 11.9%. In Miami-Dade County, CDC PLACES-based community data show 13.5% of adults 65+ had total tooth loss in 2022, while only 52.6% of adults had visited a dentist in the prior year, well below the U.S. benchmark shown on the same dashboard.
Taken together, the implication for research on dental implants is straightforward: South Florida is not a “low-need” market.
It is a market where tooth loss risk remains meaningful, the older population is large and growing, and provider capacity is relatively strong in major counties.
Broward County’s population was 19.5% age 65+ in 2025, Palm Beach County’s was 26.1%, and Pembroke Pines itself was 20.0% age 65+; Palm Beach County’s older age structure is particularly relevant to Delray Beach.
What the last five years show about tooth loss
The most reliable recent national picture comes from CDC and peer-reviewed analyses. CDC’s 2024 report found that adults 65+ had an average of 6.4 teeth missing because of disease, and 15.2% were completely edentulous in 2017–March 2020.
The burden was far higher in disadvantaged groups: 29.8% among older adults in high poverty, 33.4% among those with less than high school education, 29.4% among current smokers, and 21.8% among non-Hispanic Black older adults.
Prevalence also rose sharply with age, from 11.4% at ages 65–74 to 19.7% at age 75+.
The longer-run direction is positive, but not enough to remove the need for restorative care. NCHS reported complete tooth loss among adults 65+ at 12.9% in 2015–2018 and showed a decline from 29.9% in 1999–2000 to 13.1% by 2017–2018.
The recent JADA BRFSS study confirms that the downward trend continued through 2020, though disparities persisted by race, income, education, smoking and chronic disease status.
Florida broadly follows that national pattern. America’s Health Rankings estimated that 11.9% of Floridians aged 65+ had all teeth removed in 2024.
Florida’s Department of Health also notes that county-level adult indicators on dental visits and teeth removed are tracked through BRFSS and related oral-health surveillance systems, which is important because it means the South Florida picture should be read as part of an established state surveillance framework rather than anecdote.
South Florida profile
The strongest local signal comes from Miami-Dade County because its community dashboard exposes CDC PLACES oral-health measures in a searchable way.
In 2022, Miami-Dade County’s estimate for adults 65+ with total tooth loss was 13.5%, above Florida’s 2024 state estimate of 11.9%.
The same dashboard shows only 52.6% of adults in Miami-Dade visited a dentist in the past year, versus a U.S. comparator of 63.9% shown on the platform.
That combination matters: a sizeable tooth-loss burden with relatively weak routine utilisation usually implies a pool of delayed or deferred restorative need rather than a fully saturated market.
Miami-Dade also has unusually strong provider density by Florida standards. Its dentist rate was 82 dentists per 100,000 population in 2023, according to County Health Rankings data surfaced by Miami-Dade Matters.
That does not mean all residents can readily access implant care, but it does suggest that specialist and restorative capacity is not unusually thin.
For Broward and Palm Beach, the public evidence is more fragmented, but the direction is still clear.
Broward County’s population was 19.5% age 65+ in 2025, while Palm Beach County’s was 26.1%, making Palm Beach the oldest of the three core South Florida counties in this brief.
Broward community-health reporting states that dentist and dental-hygienist supply per 100,000 population was greater than the Florida average, and a Florida dental-access brief says Broward and Palm Beach counties had dentist rates significantly above the statewide rate.
These are not implant-specific metrics, but they are useful structural indicators for implant adoption potential because implants require a base of referral, oral surgery such as bone grafting, and restorative capacity.
At city level, the demographic case is strongest for Pembroke Pines and Delray Beach. Pembroke Pines had an estimated 176,714 residents in 2025, with 20.0% aged 65+, median household income of $85,104, and poverty at 10.0%.
Those figures point to a sizeable senior cohort and a comparatively strong self-pay or financed-pay base for elective or partially covered implant treatment.
Delray Beach sits in Palm Beach County, where 26.1% of residents are already 65+, so even without a like-for-like public implant procedure series, the age structure strongly supports continued restorative demand.
What the implant adoption evidence suggests
There is no robust, public, city-level dataset that counts implants placed in Pembroke Pines, Delray Beach or Miami. That is the main empirical gap in this topic.
What does exist points to sustained adoption growth at national level and continued market expansion beyond 2026.
A widely cited peer-reviewed study reported that dental implant prevalence among U.S. adults with missing teeth increased substantially from 1999 to 2016.
More recent commercial and industry sources, while not equivalent to public-health surveillance, continue to point in the same direction rather than suggesting a plateau.
On the market side, a 2025 SEC annual report estimated the global tooth-replacement market generated about $8 billion in 2024.
Separately, commercial market research estimated the U.S. dental implants and abutment systems market at $2.1 billion in 2024 with growth toward 2034, and another 2026 market report projected the global dental implants market at $6.0 billion in 2026 rising to $11.0 billion by 2033, with North America holding the largest revenue share in 2025.
These figures should be treated as market estimates rather than epidemiologic counts, but they are consistent with an adoption story driven by an ageing population, technology improvements and continued restorative demand.
Clinical durability is one reason implants continue to gain share. A systematic review reported a summary estimate for 10-year implant survival of 96.4%, which helps explain why implants continue to attract patients who can afford fixed tooth replacement over removable alternatives.
What is likely to shape South Florida after 2026
The strongest forecast conclusion is that implant demand in South Florida is likely to keep rising beyond 2026, but unevenly.
That is an inference from four converging facts: older populations are already large in Broward and especially Palm Beach; Florida and Miami-Dade still show material total-tooth-loss burden in older adults; local provider supply is relatively favourable in major counties; and the broader implant market continues to expand.
The main brake on adoption is cost and coverage. Medicare states plainly that, in most cases, Original Medicare does not cover routine dental services or items such as dentures and implants.
CMS also notes that some Medicare Advantage plans may offer dental benefits, but coverage varies and remains plan-dependent. In a senior-heavy region such as South Florida, that financing structure matters enormously: it tends to support growth in affluent, insured or credit-accessible segments while slowing uptake among lower-income older adults, even when clinical need is clear.
For the three named geographies, the practical implication is this: Pembroke Pines appears well positioned for continued implant uptake because it combines a meaningful senior base with comparatively strong household income.
Delray Beach should remain highly relevant because it sits inside one of Florida’s oldest counties, where age alone will keep restorative dentistry demand elevated.
Miami and Miami-Dade likely remain a larger but more bifurcated market, with strong provider density yet weaker routine dental utilisation and more visible access barriers.
That last point makes Miami-Dade especially important for research on unmet need, delayed treatment and financing sensitivity.
Open questions and limitations
This topic has one major evidence gap: there is no easy, public, city-level time series showing how many dental implants were actually placed each year in Pembroke Pines, Delray Beach or Miami.
Most public data describe need and access rather than implant procedures themselves.
The most defensible conclusion, therefore, is not “South Florida implant adoption equals X%”, because the evidence does not support that precision.
The defensible conclusion is narrower and stronger: South Florida has the demographic profile, tooth-loss burden and provider infrastructure to support continued implant-market growth beyond 2026, but adoption will remain segmented by income, dental utilisation and coverage.
References
Prevalence of complete edentulism among US adults 65 …
Explore Teeth Extractions – Age 65+ in Florida | AHR
U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Broward County, Florida
2024 Oral Health Surveillance Report: Selected Findings | Oral Health | CDC
Prevalence of Tooth Loss Among Older Adults
Miami-Dade Matters: Indicators: All Data
Indicators :: Dentist Rate :: County : Miami-Dade
U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Pembroke Pines city, Florida
Trends in Dental Implant Use in the U.S., 1999–2016 … – PMC
