Budget does not change waiting time

The waiting times for public dental services remains at 23 months, according to the 2010-11 Victorian Budget papers. Likewise, the waiting time for dentures stays at 22 months.
The Budget has increased funding for dental services by $9.8 million to $164.3 million. A target of 331,000 people will be treated for the year.
The increase in the cost of dental supplies and equipment along with the State’s rapidly growing population has to be weighed against the Budget increase.
The papers also make mention of the State investing $39 million in a range of preventative health programs including $20 million over four years to improve access to public dental care.

Oral Health of Health Cardholders

The latest dental research paper from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare looks at the oral health of health cardholders. Entitled Oral health of health cardholders attending for dental care in the private and public sectors, research by Assoc. Prof. D S Brennan revealed:

• Cardholders that visited privately had similar numbers of teeth present compared with those that visited the public sector, with the exception being higher numbers of teeth among people aged 65 years or older who last visited privately compared with the public sector.
• No differences in caries experience were evident by place of last visit among cardholders who last visited for a check-up. However, among cardholders who last visited for a dental problem, those who visited the public sector had more decayed teeth overall, and those aged 65 years or older had more missing teeth but fewer filled teeth, compared with those who last visited in the private sector.
• There was no significant difference in the prevalence of periodontal pockets of 4 mm or more by place of last visit either for those who last visited for a check-up or for those who last visited for a dental problem.
• Among those who visited for a check-up, a higher percentage of cardholders who visited in the public sector received extractions in the 35–44 years age group compared with those who visited privately.

Budget targets public dental waiting lists

The State Budget (large file - see pp 100-101) has brought little relief to the swelling list of public dental patients.

Although increasing funding by around 6% to reduce public dental waiting lists, the Government has not provided much needed dental services to residents in nursing homes.

The Government aims to provide dental services to 314,700 people – an increase of 9700 or 3% - while maintaining the current treatment waiing times of 23 months for dental treatment and 22 months for dentures.

Additional capital expenditure on new clinics, especially in regional Victoria is welcome.

Cost of public dental care in Victoria

The first comprehensive study of the comparative costs of public dental care in Victoria was launched today.

The Dental Costs Study investigated the costs of delayed dental treatment of users of public dental health clinics among two groups of dental patients – one group was on the waiting list for more than two years; the other for two to four months.

The cost of proposed dental treatment for people in the study ranged from $46 to more than $4000. The average cost was $924.

The key findings are:
Public dental policy should promote preventing avoidable tooth loss. This should include early identification of need, early intervention, prevention and appropriate treatment.
Public dental clinics need to create supportive environments that enable oral health practitioners to provide effective dental treatment and preventative care.

The study was conducted Dianella Community Health, Broadmeadows, by the Health Issues Centre.

Southern Health gets $100,000 to tackle dental waiting times

The Victorian Government has given Southern Health $100,000 to tackle public dental waiting times.

In his Media Release announcing the extra funds, Health Minister Daniel Andrews said the funding will be used to identify and meet public demand for dental services at the Casey Community Health Service and Greater Dandenong Community Health Service. He said Southern Health will use a UK system which will allow clients to see a dentist or other health professional at a time and date convenient to them.

Budget fails public dentistry

The Victorian State Budget does nothing to address some of the worst gaps in the Victorian health system, according to the Victorian Oral Health Alliance (VOHA).
VOHA Tony McBride spokesman said today that the Budget fails thousands of Victorians most in need of immediate dental care, “bordering on wilful neglect”.
He said the Budget offers less per person this year. Mr McBride said that the unchanged dental treatment targets are an effective decrease 3.45%.
To read VOHA's media release, click here.

State-wide general dental waiting list up slightly

There were 112,337 Victorians waiting for general dental care at the end of last June, according to the 2007 DHSV Quality of Care Report, Reasons to Smile. The previous year there were 110,579 people waiting for general dental care – a 14% fall from 2004-05 (168,366). The agency's Annual Report outlines a number of achievements during 2006-07:

• Providing treatment to 304,565 patients – a 1.4% increase on the previous year
• Of these, DHSV treated 125,781 patients directly, with the remainder being treated by community dental agencies and private sector providers
• The Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne’s emergency department saw 17,951 patients – a 16.4% increase

NHMRC reaffirms support for fluoridation

The National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia's peak health science research body, has recently issued a Public Statement on The Efficacy and Safety of Fluoridation 2007 reaffirming its support for this major disease prevention measure.

The updated NHMRC recommendation reads:

"Fluoridation of drinking water remains the most effective and socially equitable means of achieving community-wide exposure to the caries prevention effects of fluoride. It is recommended that water be fluoridated in the target range of 0.6 to 1.1 mg/L, depending on climate, to balance reduction of dental caries and occurrence of dental fluorosis."

Victorian dental waiting list data updated

Waiting times for public dental care as at June 2007 were recently updated at the Your Hospitals website, published by the Department of Human Services.

The VOHA website has now collated all of the new data, and provided summaries and graphs which provide a much clearer picture of trends and the overall situation.

While there have been improvements at many clinics, the average waiting time across the State remains at just over 23 months, and patients in some areas still experience waiting times of 4 to 5 years.

Dental report card - Federal Election 2007

A report card on the dental policies proposed by the major parties participating in the forthcoming Federal Election has been published by the ADA Inc.

The National Oral Health Alliance, representing a range of professional. community, welfare and consumer groups, issued a media release on 18 September which called for all parties to:

1. As a first step, ensure that all people on concession cards have a free basic course of dental care every 2 years;
2. Provide the funding for this initiative through the States and Territories on the condition that the States and Territories bring their own expenditure up to the new level of Commonwealth funding, extend water fluoridation to all communities, ensure that all children and eligible adults receive one course of general oral health care every two years, and ensure that no one waits longer than 24 hours to receive emergency dental care for swelling, infection and bleeding, or serious and persistent pain;
3. Conduct a full national review of the current oral health workforce.

Duelling dental programs

The Federal Opposition has announced that a Labor Government would reinstate the Commonwealth dental program at a cost of $290 million over three years. The ALP suggests that this program would create up to one million additional dental sessions over this period.

Under the scheme, the money would be given to the States and Territories enabling them to supplement existing public dental services or buy private sector appointments for public patients. Currently about 650,000 people are on public dental waiting lists.

The Coalition’s dental program gives Medicare funding for dental care in the private system for people with chronic health conditions that affect their oral health and the elderly. It is costed at $385 million over four years - which is roughly the same annual allocation as is offered by the ALP scheme.

ADA’s Federal President, Dr John Matthews, said there were merits in both plans but questioned the capacity of Labor’s scheme to provide one million more visits.

The National Oral Health Alliance called on all parties to ensure that all concession cardholders had a free basic dental care every two years, extend water fluoridation to all communities, and conduct a national review of the oral health workforce.

Children's Television Advertising Standards Review

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has published public submissions in response to their review of the Children’s Television Standards (CTS) at their website.

According to the ACMA, this review "aims to ensure that the CTS are operating effectively in the current environment and to identify the building blocks required to position the CTS for the future media environment".

A number of organisations associated with the Victorian Oral Health Alliance have made submissions to this review, with special emphasis on banning junk food advertising to children, and copies of these can be accessed at the ACMA website. Look for submissions by the Coalition on Food Advertising to Children, the Australian Dental Association, VicHealth, and Choice, amongst others.

Dentists too thinly spread in rural Australia

The Australian Dental Association issued a media release yesterday calling on the Federal Government to do more to address the maldistribution of the current dental workforce, which is negatively impacting on the delivery of services in areas of need such as in rural, regional and remote parts of Australia.

Key recommendations in the release are as follows:

"The ADA calls on the Commonwealth Government to take the following steps to alleviate dental workforce shortages in regional, rural and remote parts of Australia:
• Fund an optional clinical placement year for graduating dentists (University and overseas trained dentists). This placement year, to be served mainly in the public dental sector (although some private rural placements should be considered in areas of special need) would increase access to dental care for public sector patients and significantly reduce waiting lists. The ADA believes in a clinical placement year but acknowledges this will require additional infrastructure and mentors.
• Create further scholarships for dental students from rural and remote parts of Australia to encourage graduates to practice in these areas.
• Extend the general practitioner and medical specialist relocation program to dentists. (This program offers financial grants for GPs and medical specialists to relocate to areas of medical doctor shortage.) Currently, “doctors can apply for grants of up to $30,000 to establish a new practice, or up to $20,000 to join an existing practice in an area of doctor shortage”.
• Create a moratorium or debt forgiveness on all dental graduates who in turn agree to provide their services in regional, rural and remote areas or in the public sector. The extent of the moratorium or debt forgiveness could reflect the period of time the dental graduate undertakes practice in these particular areas. The longer the period of guaranteed service in regional, rural or remote areas, the greater the moratorium or debt forgiveness.
• Provide accommodation assistance to enable under graduate students to attend rural clinics as is in place for medical students."

VicHealth chief calls for junk food ad ban

Todd Harper, CEO of VicHealth, is reported in the Sunday Age yesterday calling on the government to legislate to ban junk food advertising in the interests of addressing the obesity and diabetes epidemics.

The same risk factors leading to increased rates of obesity and diabetes also contribute to dental decay, and three member bodies of the Victorian and National Oral Health Alliances, the Australian Dental Association, Australian Dental & Oral Health Therapists Association and Public Health Association of Australia, are also participants in the Coalition on Food Advertising to Children.

According to their website, "This coalition includes many key Australian health and consumer organisations, and is calling for a marked reduction in the commercial promotion of foods and beverages to children under 14 years old. The first step they advocate is to extend the statutory regulations to prohibit all television food and beverage advertising during programs where children make up a significant proportion of the viewing audience. This does not preclude the promotion of healthy eating messages to children through non-commercial social marketing".

The Pull the Plug on Food Advertising campaign is being run to help make the job of parents easier, and to give our kids a healthier future.

Register Online - Sign on to the Pull the Plug campaign

For more information visit http://www.chdf.org.au/foodadstokids/