Aussie kids cannot get needed dental operations

Anisha Hall Hoppe, Dental Tribune International

Mon. 8. April 2024

save

SYDNEY, Australia: A lack of space in surgical theatres in Australia has led to around 1,500 children suffering from prolonged pain from oral health conditions that could have been prevented in the first place. In an effort to expand oral health knowledge as part of World Oral Health Day (20 March), the Australian Dental Association (ADA) released data from an updated Oral Health Tracker tool which indicated a rise in hospital admissions since 2018 and a steeper incline in the numbers of Indigenous children admitted with preventable dental conditions.

“It’s hard to believe in a First World country like Australia, with most people having access to fluoridated water, healthy food and the tools for keeping mouths clean and decay-free, that this is still happening—but it is,” said ADA President Dr Scott Davis in a press release. He explained: “There are complex reasons for this. Cost is always an issue and this continued trend of children needing to go to hospital to get their oral health problems fixed, indicates that we have a significant problem today and for the future.”

The Oral Health Tracker for children notes that 70.3% of children aged 9–13 consumed too much sugar and that 27.1% of children aged 5–10 suffered from untreated caries in primary teeth. This resulted in 10.8 children out of 1,000 being hospitalised because of dental conditions that were potentially preventable.

Though sugar and associated high rates of dental caries were noted as significant causes of oral health disease in children, once the damage has been done, finding a slot for an operation is further complicated by the fact that private hospitals are less inclined to take on their cases as a result of a flawed hospital funding model.

“Every state and territory provides free dental care for eligible children so they can see a private or public dentist under the Child Dental Benefits Schedule—but there needs to be considerably more effective, targeted publicity of the scheme as it’s currently only used by 38% of eligible families,” said Dr Davis.

“Dental procedures under general anaesthesia can only access one poorly rebated code irrespective of how much or how complex the treatment required,” explained Dr Nicky Kilpatrick, president of the Australasian Academy of Paediatric Dentistry. “This results in paediatric dental lists being less profitable than other medical procedures which attract more codes, and in some cases the paediatric dental lists run at a loss because the hospital gets the same rebate whether we restore one tooth or ten. This is what needs fixing.”