Volume 202 - Issue 9
Closing the dental divide
Author: Leonard A Crocombe
Med J Aust 2015; 202 (9): 475-477. || doi: 10.5694/mja15.00284
Published online: 18 May 2015
Published online: 18 May 2015
Can the government afford to supply dental care to the whole Australian population?
To the Editor: Russell noted the importance of oral health to general health and quality of life, and the substantial costs of dental treatment.1 In 2012–13, $8.3 billion was spent on dental treatment in Australia.2
A recently released Health Workforce Australia report3 indicated that Australia has a more than sufficient dental workforce. The dental workforce distribution between remote and metropolitan areas is altering as graduate dentists move to outer regional and remote areas,4 although there are many regional and remote areas that will never be able to support full-time dental services due to low population numbers.4
Unlike medical care, dental care is overwhelmingly supplied in the private sector.5 Russell's solution is to transfer the costs of dental care from the patient to the government.
The National Oral Health Plan 2004–2013 identified six populations for specific action to improve oral health outcomes: children and adolescents, older people, people with low incomes and with social disadvantage, people with special needs, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and those living in rural and remote areas.
It would be more practical than integrating dental care into Medicare to incrementally increase the availability of the government's limited resources to populations who have difficulty accessing dental care. The Australian Dental Association has supported the Child Dental Benefit Schedule and suggested that the next group in the staged implementation of government-assisted dental care should be people aged 65 years and over.6 It makes sense from both a health and an economic perspective for government to prioritise the oral health of older people within a policy of staged improvement in dental care access.
Competing interests
I am Chairman of the Australian Dental Association Dental Workforce Education Committee; the Dental Consultant for AITEC Corporate Education and Consulting responsible for the delivery of the Voluntary Dental Graduate Year and Oral Health Therapy Graduate Year Programs; and Chief Investigator for the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute Centre of Research Excellence in Primary Oral Health Care. The information and opinions contained in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute or the Department of Health.
References
- Russell LM. Closing the dental divide. Med J Aust 2014; 201: 641-642. 1
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Health expenditure Australia 2012-13. Canberra: AIHW, 2014. (Health and Welfare Expenditure Series No. 52. AIHW Cat. No. HWE 61.) 2
- Health Workforce Australia. Australia's future health workforce – oral health. Overview report. Canberra: HWA, 2014. http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/3CFAE9DEE7BB7659CA257D9600143C09/$File/AFHW%20-%20Oral%20Health%20Overview%20report.pdf (accessed Apr 2015).
- Godwin D, Hoang H, Bell E, Crocombe LA. Dental practitioner rural work movements: a systematic review. Rural and Remote Health 2014; 14: 2825. 4
- Chrisopoulos S, Harford JE. Oral health and dental care in Australia: key facts and figures 2012. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Canberra: AIHW, 2013. (Cat. No. DEN 224.) 5
- Australian Dental Association. Federal pre-budget submission 2015-2016. http://www.ada.org.au/App_CmsLib/Media/Lib/1502/M850700_v1_635590808920306487.pdf (accessed Apr 2015).