Six year wait for dentists revealed as industry experts call for Medicare to cover dental care

Australians are waiting a ridiculous amount of time for dental treatment in the public system and are taking extreme measures to deal with it.

More than 376,000 Australians crippled by toothache are waiting up to six years for treatment in the public dental system.

The staggering wait times are a key reason more than 70,000 Australians who can’t afford a trip to the dentist end up in hospital every year.

Welfare groups have reported that Australians are being reduced to pulling out their own teeth and they are missing out on jobs because of unsightly mouths, and others are travelling to Asia for cheaper dental care.

Dentists, welfare groups and think tanks are calling for Medicare to be extended to cover dental care to fix the problem.

There are huge problems with dental care funding, experts warn.

The issue has emerged as a key election battleground with both Labor and The Greens promising to extend Medicare to cover the dental bills of more Australians.

And the Australian dental Association says access to dental care should be a right not a privilege.

“The nation is divided into the haves with the good teeth and the have-nots with the poor teeth. This is a first world country and this should not be happening,” ADA president Dr Carmelo Bonanno said.

Federal government spending on public dental care has been cut by $283 million since 2011-12 — money Labor says could have funded an extra 465,000 dental visits a year.

A recent report by former health department chief Stephen Duckett for the Grattan Institute, found 2 million Australians who required dental care last year couldn’t afford it.

Almost two in three low income earners have not seen a dentist in the past year.

One in five Australians who did see a dentist couldn’t afford the follow up treatment recommended as a result of their check up.

Some Australians are going to extreme measures for dentals care they can’t afford.

“Oral health conditions can contribute to other health problems, including diabetes and heart disease,” Mr Duckett said.

“Most oral health conditions are preventable, yet people often end up going to a GP or hospital emergency department to be treated for conditions that could have been arrested with earlier care,” he said.

The Federal Government should phase in a government funded dental scheme for all Australians within the next 10 years at a cost of $5.6 billion, Mr Duckett’s study said.

Under a policy introduced by Labor and The Greens in 2014, children whose families qualify for the Family Tax Benefit can get $1000 worth of free dental care every two years.

However, only one in three of those children eligible take advantage of the scheme because it has never been promoted by the Government.

There are calls for the Federal Government to introduce a dental scheme for all Australians in the next decade.

Labor has pledged to spend $2.4 billion extending that plan to three million pensioners and healthcare card holders who will get $1000 worth of free dental care every two years.

The Greens want to go further and have pledged every child, age pensioner and concession card holder will get Medicare funded dental care at a cost of $5.8 billion.

The Australian Dental Association has welcomed the Labor’s pledge to bring pensioner dental care under Medicare but has concerned only accredited dental practices can access the scheme.

ADA president Carmelo Bonanno said only one in four practices were accredited, the association was also concerned that to access the Medicare scheme dentists would have to bulk bill patients.

CASE STUDY

Mum of three Callie Westbrook has lost 20 of her original teeth and despite waiting seven years has never managed to access a public dental plan.

Instead of getting early preventive treatment, she lurched from crisis to crisis and was forced to access emergency dental care under the public scheme and beg her mother for money to fund private treatment.

At one stage she spent three weeks in agony and had to walk around with a heat pack on her face before her mother gave her $250 to access a private dentist to pull out a tooth which had a massive abscess.

‘I waited and waited’. Callie Westbrook, second from left, with her kids, has opened up about her dental heath care concerns. Picture: Annette Dew

“I first went on the waiting lists for a public dental plan in 2012 and I waited and waited and I’m still waiting,” she said.

The Sunshine Coast mother eventually got help from private dentist Dr Martin Webb who agreed to treat her for free.

He has completed a series of extractions, has fitted a top plate and is preparing a bottom plate to be fitted later this year.

Ms Westbrook says she doesn’t know why her teeth are like powder, she doesn’t drink soft drinks or do drugs, one theory is that her third child might have leeched calcium from her body.

She speaks highly of the dentists working in the public scheme but says there are simply not enough dentists or enough money to treat all those waiting for care.

Her children receive free dental treatment under Medicare and Ms Westbook says it would be fabulous if that scheme was extended to adults.

Originally published as Six year wait for dentists revealed as industry experts call for Medicare to cover dental care