The NobleDentist Blog

This is an article by Sue Dunlevy that appeared recently on www.news.com.au.

When a group of Thai Buddhist dentists feels compelled to come here to provide charity dental care for Australians, the true shame of our nation’s appalling public dental program is revealed.

We live in a nation sporting a $10 billion Budget surplus but there are 650,000 Australians living in pain, many unable to get a job or eat normally because they can not afford to see a dentist.

The state of our teeth is so bad we’ve been adopted as a charity cause by our Asian neighbours.

I was embarrassed when I learned on a trip to outback Australia that the highlight of the year in the tiny desert-bound town of Bedourie in Queensland was a visit by five Thai dentists.

With their saffron-robed cooks in tow, the dentists travelled from Thailand to spend a few weeks providing free dental care to the residents of this town to fulfil their religious obligation to perform charity work.

No disrespect to the burghers of Bedourie but you could see why they came when you saw the blackened, rotting and disappearing teeth of some of the people who lived in the area.

Sadly, the town’s publican informed me this week the Thai dentists had stopped their visits and there was now no dental care at all for the people who live around Bedourie.

The residents of Bedourie are not alone in their dental pain.

The Health Services Union this week produced three people who had been waiting 10 years for treatment on public dental waiting lists.

In Sydney single mother Sue Gandy said she was unable to get a job or attend her daughter’s parent teacher interviews because her missing and broken teeth and rotting gums were ruining her life.

The NSW public dental service had offered to pull out all her teeth but told her she would have to wait two years before they could supply her with dentures to take their place.

Anyone who has overcome their phobia of the dentist chair to have some dental work done will know why low-income earners can’t afford it.

A simple filling will set you back more than $300 and a capped tooth will cost $1300.

You will be after a second mortgage on your home if your child needs braces.

The appalling state of this nation’s teeth is matched only by the shameless reaction of our politicians to the problem.

The Iemma Government contributes the lowest amount of money per head to public dental care of any state in the country – just $18 a year, compared with about $36 in other states.

Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott this week washed his hands of the problem, claiming public dental care was a state responsibility and they should fix it.

Yet his Government spends more than $368 million a year paying 30 per cent of the cost of dental care for those rich enough to have private health insurance through the private health insurance tax rebate.

And his Government made the public dental waiting lists worse when it axed a $100 million a year contribution to public dental health programs in 1996.

The Australian Council of Social Services and the Health Services Union point out that poor public dental care has ramifications beyond the disfigurement and pain it causes the individuals who suffer from it.

In the end it means many of these people are unemployable.

It means they are left living off welfare and pain-killers and antibiotics paid for by the taxpayer.

ACOSS says with a $10 billion Budget surplus, the Federal Government should at the very least be able to spare $160million a year to cover the cost of a comprehensive oral health check or the cost of a course of basic treatment every two years for families earning less than $48,000.

The Health Services Union says Medicare should cover the cost of dental treatment for children aged under 18 and those aged over 65 as well as low-income earners.

Fifty per cent of marginal-seat voters surveyed by the union say they had put off dental care because they couldn’t afford it.

Three out of four of them said the Federal Government should have a role in providing public dental care and they want Medicare to cover it.

Two of our politicians are offering some hope for the dentally challenged.

Opposition Leader Peter Debnam says he will spend $208.5 million on public dental care if he wins next month’s state election.

Labor’s health spokeswoman Nicola Roxon says a federal Labor government will provide a means-tested program of free dental care for the nation’s working families.

Until then it seems the only road to dental nirvana may be to meditate and hope that the Buddhists resume their charity work in Australia.