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The Sydney Morning Herald media coverage: Public dental waiting lists in NSW

Media source: The Sydney Morning Herald
Date published: 24 April 2022 
Reporter: Lucy Carroll

Public dental waiting lists in NSW have blown out to almost 100,000 people with the average wait time for a first dentist appointment sitting at more than 460 days.

Dentists warn pandemic lockdowns have exacerbated delays with “chronic underfunding of the public system and surging out-of-pocket dental costs” forcing huge numbers of patients to wait years to have tooth decay, gum disease, broken fillings and cavities treated.

“No one should wait years to see a dentist in Australia, especially when bad dental health can lead to serious problems like heart disease, cancers, diabetes and pneumonia,” Professor Heiko Spallek, head of school and dean of the University of Sydney school of dentistry, said. “The current system is failing a lot of people.”

The latest NSW Health data shows just over 94,000 adults and about 5100​ children are waiting for public dental treatment.

While the number of adults waiting has dipped slightly from a peak of 100,559 in mid-2020, the total has doubled in a decade, soaring from 47,000 people waiting at the end of 2013.

“COVID-19 has taken a serious toll on dental health and increased demand on services, people have postponed dental check-ups and treatment when clinics were closed,” Spallek said.

Waiting lists for dental assessment in NSW, where patients are yet to be diagnosed with a condition such as cracked teeth or jaw pain from grinding, have ballooned to 32,000, the highest on record.

Rates of tooth decay among children are also rising slightly, president of the NSW branch of the Australian Dental Association Dr Michael Jonas said.

“It used to be an average one tooth [with decay] for each child, but it is sneaking up towards two. Some colleagues of mine are doing full clearances on three and four-year-olds.”

The numbers highlight the massive load on the public system as the Greens push dental care as an election issue with a multi-billion proposal to provide bulk-billed dental care for all.

Earlier this month the Greens outlined a policy on a sweeping Medicare extension that would add everything from dental check-ups to oral surgery.

It set out dozens of extra items to the Medicare bulk-billing schedule, including preventative dentistry, oral surgery and orthodontics.

Although he welcomed the Green’s proposal, Spallek said a gradual move towards a universal national scheme starting with a seniors dental plan – as recommended by the Royal Commission into Aged Care – would be “easier to implement given the current workforce”.

“Pent up demand would mean the floodgates would open and cause huge pressure on the system unless it’s done gradually,” Spallek said.

A new seniors dental benefits scheme is a policy strongly backed by the Australian Dental Association. In 2019, federal Labor promised multibillion-dollar pledges for free dental and cancer care for pensioners, but has so far not re-endorsed the policy.

Data from the productivity commission shows average wait times in NSW for a first dental visit is 465 days and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients it is 480 days.

Waiting too long to treat problems such as toothache can result in patients being treated in emergency rooms with severe pain, with the most recent figures showing 67,000 hospital admissions for dental problems could potentially be avoided with earlier treatment.

“If this was cancer or heart disease there would be a lot more attention on it. This is an acute problem needing urgent attention,” Professor Matt Hopcraft, chief executive of the Victorian branch of the Australian Dental Association, said.

Just over 151,000 people in Victoria are waiting for public dental treatment bringing the waitlist total to more than 250,000 across NSW and Victoria. The average wait time to be seen in Victoria is 24.8 months, the worst delays in a decade, Hopcraft said.

In NSW, pension and other concession cardholders are eligible for public dental services in state run clinics. The child dental benefit scheme gives subsidised services for children, but only about 38 per cent of people use it, according to the ADA.

“Bad dental health can cause embarrassment, kids miss school, people have trouble getting a job ... there are all kinds of hidden costs,” Hopcraft said.

A spokesperson for NSW Health said the state government had provided an extra $458 million to fast-track elective waiting lists, including dental, which were delayed due to COVID-19.

“In NSW, patients with urgent dental conditions are given immediate appointments and are not placed on a waiting list. Public dental services are prioritised for patients based on clinical need,” the spokesperson said.

Waitlists are worst in the Hunter New England local health district where 15,144 people are waiting for treatment, Sydney has 13,890 on the list and the Central Coast 11,217.

The federal government announced $107.8 million to continue support for adult public services through a federation funding agreement until June 2022, providing treatment to an additional 180,000 public dental patients.

“Through the government’s support of three national partnership agreements and the federation funding agreement wait times for public dental service have been reduced from an average of 20 months to 12 months over the span of these agreements,” a spokesperson for Health Minister Greg Hunt said.

“Conversely, Labor took a disastrous plan for dental to the 2019 election which it has now shelved. Waiting lists are a matter for each individual state or territory.”

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