Painful wait for public dental care in Victoria

The state’s public dental system is “beyond crisis point”, with worrying figures revealing how long vulnerable people have to wait to see a dentist.

There has been a massive blowout in dental wait times. Picture: iStock

A leading oral health expert has warned Victoria’s public dental system is well beyond crisis point, with vulnerable Victorians forced to wait longer than 17 months on average for general dental care.

More than 1.5 million Victorian adults are eligible to access public dental care in Victoria, but just 12 per cent – or 181,000 people – received treatment in the year to June – which is also well less than the 220,000 people that usually receive the funded care annually.

The latest available data shows the average wait time for treatment is averaging a whopping 17.6 months, while specialist care carries a 16 month wait.

Treatment times for dentures is about 17 months, and those who require an urgent response are waiting nearly three months.

Vulnerable Victorians are forced to wait longer than 17 months on average for general dental care.

The Herald Sun last year revealed that wait times in some regional dental clinics had ballooned to 53 months. But the government this week refused to provide an individual health service data breakdown.

A $27m cash injection from the Andrews government to target waiting lists and provide more than 40,000 people with immediate access to check-ups and treatments has helped to slightly decrease wait times – from 23 months in June to nearly 18 months in September.

But Australian Dental Association Victorian branch CEO Matthew Hopcraft warned one-off cash payments weren’t a solution to a systemic issue and the initial waiting list decline would soar again next year once the funds had run out.

Professor Hopcraft said the wait time for general public dental was at nearly 18 months in 2012/13 before it dropped to just under 12 months in 2014/15 after a funding boost.

There are concerns the waiting list will soar again next year.

Since then, data obtained by the ADA through Freedom of Information revealed rising waiting times, reaching nearly 27 months at one point this year.

“The last time there was a big injection in one-off funding, the waiting time dropped down but once those vouchers go away, things will get much, much worse again,” he said.

“We’ve got a system that’s not even close to catering for the needs of nearly one third of the population who the government has determined is eligible for public dental.

“It is so under resourced that people aren’t able to get regular care in a way that we’d say is clinically appropriate. We’re beyond crisis point.”

As people are forced to wait so long, their dental health often deteriorates, Prof Hopcraft said, adding that dental disease is one of the biggest indicators of social disadvantage.

“This often means that patients then require emergency treatment while they wait for a check-up, with nearly half of all treatment provided for emergencies. This puts further pressure on the system, effectively forcing people to wait longer and end up with worse oral health outcomes,” he said.

While the government has launched the Smile Squad school dental program to deliver free check-ups and treatments to Victorian students, Prof Hopcraft said a greater focus needed to be put towards adults.

But he warned it required up to five years worth of planning to have any meaningful impact.

“There’s no quick fix because it’s been a decade of inaction and a decade of neglect,” Prof Hopcraft said.

The alarming figures come just one day after the Herald Sun revealed warnings from oral health experts that Australia is in a “dire” situation unless there is an urgent and substantial increase put towards research funding.

An Andrews government spokesman said the government was working closely with Dental Health Services Victoria – the overarching provider for public dental – to find ways to better manage waitlists.

But the spokesman also blamed both the pandemic and former federal government for the ballooning waitlists, and said Victoria continued to call on the Commonwealth to properly fund dental services.

“After a decade of neglect from the previous federal government and disruption caused by the pandemic, we’re working to support those Victorians who need public dental as quickly as possible,” he said.

“We’re also supporting our dental providers through a range of grants to improve their systems, offer more care options for their patients and support patients that deferred care throughout the pandemic.”

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said: “Proper investment in dental care has been neglected by Labor for years.”

“They promised Victorians to fix the health crisis, so they need to stop blaming other governments for their failures and using Covid as a convenient excuse and just get on and fix it — and that includes the massive blowouts in dental wait times.”