Aim: To explore socioeconomic, educational and research factors associated with dental research productivity at the state level in Brazil. Methods: The authors used the Scopus database to identify dental articles published from 2006 to 2016 associated with Brazilian universities at the state level. Several social, economic, educational and research structure variables were obtained from the census and National Research Council to predict the rate of articles per 100 thousand inhabitants among the 27 Brazilian states. Rates were fitted in linear weighted least-squared regression with stepwise technique. Twenty-two variables were grouped in six blocks (social, economic, general education, dental education, research workforce and structure). Results: A total of 21189 articles were published, and the state of São Paulo accounted for 46%, followed by Rio Grande do Sul with 9.4%; four states did not publish any articles. There were an average (± standard deviation) of 2.6 (±1.98) published articles per 100 researchers and 13.4 (±9.6) articles per 100 thousand inhabitants. Research structure and workforce explained 92.4% and 87.2% of state variability, respectively, while the final model explained 94.5%. One extra PhD and one extra undergraduate researcher per 100 thousand inhabitants were associated with 11.3 more and 3.5 fewer articles, respectively, while every 10 points (range 0-100) on the Human Development Index (Education Component) was associated with 3.3 more articles. Conclusion: State scientific output has several associated factors, but research workforce and general education variables seem to be good predictors. Large disparities among state research outputs have been described and must be addressed by research and development policies.