Put your money where your mouth is

Strategies to improve the oral health of people needing high dental care – especially the elderly – is vital after the federal government’s announcement to remove $340 million of nation-wide funding for dental treatment at the end of this year.

Australian Dental Association vice-president, Dr Karin Alexander, tells DPS eNews the slashing of funding will affect many disadvantaged groups across the country.

“Those most in need of chronic dental treatment are elderly people who are trying to live independently at home, as well as those in residential aged care facilities,” Dr Alexander says.

“Problematic is that those living at home are often frail and unable to venture outside because they have lost their independence, and cannot travel on their own to visit a dentist,” she says.

Dr Alexander says carers are often “so busy” they do not have the time to take their loved ones to the dentist.

“Then what you have are these elderly people with a really bad state of oral health… it’s a disaster zone,” she says.

According to Dr Alexander, the government needs a “means-tested” scheme in place and should not only focus on residential care, but the frail that are living at home.

“This is a silent and disadvantaged group; they are often out of sight, out of mind as far as the government is concerned,” she says.

The Chronic Disease Dental Scheme paid for people with chronic diseases to have their teeth treated and fixed if, in the doctor’ opinion, the person’s oral health posed a health risk for their general well-being. Dr Alexander says the removal of the scheme is detrimental as there is “absolutely nothing in place” to take over.

“People will lose access to quality of dental care; consequently impacting on their general health. If people with diabetes, heart or intestinal problems cannot eat properly, then it is likely to affect their general health,” Dr Alexander says.

“So, this is going to leave many people to their own resources, and most will have to neglect their oral care because they can’t afford it,” she adds.

While the Australian Dental Association supports the removal of a “generalised” system, Dr Alexander would like to see a “targeted” system to take its place.

“We’ve been talking to government on a way of introducing this targeted system and having a scheme which will deliver care correctly to people who need it.

“We’re waiting for an appropriate action plan, but it just doesn’t seem high on the government’s agenda at the moment… which is very frustrating,” she says.

The removal of the plan has been described by other experts as a “public health disaster” which will put further pressure on the “dysfunctional public dental system”, and have flow-on effects to the broader health of the community.

In the past year, NSW received about $370 million of Commonwealth funding under the Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme and is due to end by December.

As the federal government promises just $30.4 million to replace it, oral health groups say the money is useless as it is most likely to fund public treatment rather than private practitioners.

In a public press statement, Minister for Healthy Lifestyles, Kevin Humphries, who announced the taskforce recently, says the plan will consider strategies to improve the oral health outcomes for people with high dental health needs – especially those with a disability, older people, children and young people in ‘out of home’ care

However, Hans Zoellner, who is the head of oral pathology at the University of Sydney, told the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), that “pretending people are going to be adequately served by the public system – which is already failing – is farcical”.

“There are people walking around in Australia with great festering abscesses in their heads they can’t afford to treat,” Associate Professor Zoellner says.

He says the extreme shortage of dentists in the public system will mean public dentists will need to see five times as many patients daily as private dentists.

Waiting lists for public treatment are already “so long” that the director of the Council of Social Service of NSW, Alison Peters, told SMH, people were forced to wait until their problems progressed and became extreme.

“Instead of getting repairs you end up getting teeth removed,” Ms Peters says.

She says the NSW government has developed a dental taskforce, on which the council has a representative, to plan dental services, but urgent resources are also needed.

A spokesman for the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, admits a “fairer and more equitable system” of dental treatment is needed.

Are you concerned about the removal of this funding? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.