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A new analysis shows one in four Australian adults delayed or skipped dental care in the past year, with cost cited as a key barrier, as calls grow for expanded public dental funding.
One in four Australia n adults who needed to see a dental professional did not see one, or delayed seeing one, at least once in the previous 12 months, according to new data.
The problem is especially common for more vulnerable groups, including women, those aged 25-34, and people living in areas of socioeconomic disadvantage. Nearly one in five people who delayed seeing a dentist, or skipped seeing one altogether, cited cost as a reason. Dental care is not covered by Medicare, meaning only some people, including children and concession cardholders, can access it for free.
Untreated Cavities And Rising Costs
One in three Australian adults have active, untreated cavities, often because they delay treatment that can cost several hundreds of dollars per tooth. The issue is personal for many Australians. A wisdom tooth that erupted at an awkward angle caused a locked jaw on one side and some hearing loss in the right ear. The problem was discovered last year when the tooth caused a canker sore, prompting a count of teeth while sitting on a bus.
An X-ray at a wisdom tooth appointment revealed more than one tooth problem. Realising an extraction would cost several hundred dollars, and that the discomfort went away temporarily, the procedure was put off. Last month, the tooth caused another sore, and this time it seemed worse, causing stiffening in the jaw. Because the job requires a lot of talking, limited jaw mobility was less than ideal.
It was not until pain pushed a visit to a dentist for the first time in years that other issues were found. These included bruxism, a condition where people unconsciously clench, grind, or gnash their teeth, often during sleep. Another tooth is sitting dormant above the two front teeth and will need monitoring. The dentist said both were OK for now, but warned that over time the bruxism would grind the teeth down and cause problems.
Superannuation Access For Dental Bills
When quoted $800 for a custom mouthguard, the decision was made not to pay through the teeth. Cheaper pharmacy alternatives have since ended up in the bin, which may cost more long term. The cost of dental treatments, which can rack up to thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, has already driven a surge in people trying to get early access to their superannuation.
The Greens have pushed for bulk-billed dental care, a policy the federal Parliamentary Budget Office estimated would cost $196 billion over the decade to 2034-35. That equals an average of nearly $20 billion a year, about one-seventh of the federal government healthcare spending and one-third of its education spending in the latest budget. Neither the government nor the opposition at a federal level has put forward a comparable policy on dental care, leaving a big hole in healthcare coverage.
Policy Proposals For Dental Funding
One proposed alternative would cost $8 billion a year by capping funding for each patient, excluding cosmetic and orthodontic treatments, and using efficient workforce models. In those models, dental assistants and therapists play a bigger role because not all dental problems require a dentist. Phasing the plan in over a decade would allow the country to train more dental professionals to keep up with higher demand.
Another proposal involves making public dental care free for an estimated cost of $230 million over the next three years, building 10 new clinics that could function similarly to urgent care clinics. People would be able to drop in for treatment of minor decay, removal of plaque, or preventive care, and would also have access to fillings, root canals and extractions. While subsidising dental care can seem expensive, there are potentially bigger costs to leaving it unchanged.
Like most health issues, early detection and preventive care are crucial to ensuring the best possible outcomes. Leaving a serious issue untreated can lead to people ending up in hospital with life-threatening emergencies such as breathing difficulties, which are also costly for taxpayers. Every year, there are about 80,000 hospital visits in Australia that could have been avoided if people were getting regular check-ups.
Productivity Loss From Dental Delay
There is also a big hit to the country productivity if people are struggling with pain and discomfort, or ending up with serious or permanent damage from putting off treatment. To get people access to dental care as soon as possible, and to have the best shot at doing this without workforce shortages, the government needs to start prioritising more affordable dental care now.
For now, the wisdom tooth problem is being ignored, but like the long-term consequences of letting costs stand in the way of Australians getting dental treatment, it will only continue to grow.
theage
smh:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
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