The NobleDentist Blog

Dr Chris Kaiplinger of Norman Park Dental is becoming a participating dentist.

This should take place by Monday, 8 June 2009. Contact details will be in Dental Clinic Brisbane.

Dr Chris Kaiplinger is located at 53 Tennyson Street, Norman Park, Queensland.

To learn how to save hundreds and even thousands of dollars off dental fees click on dentist.

Dr Derek Lee of Slacks Creek Dental Surgery has recently become a participating dentist.

He is located at Suite 9, 250 Kingston Road, Slacks Creek, Queensland.

Members wanting to make an appointment can simply click on Dentists Brisbane for contact details.

Dr Derek Lee and the team look forward to assisting members of NobleDentist.

To learn how to save hundreds and even thousands of dollars off dental fees click on dental.

Surrounding suburbs include Mt Warren Park, Beenleigh, Bahrs Scrub, Buccan, Holmview, Waterford, Edens Landing, Loganholme, Bethania, Waterford West, Logan Reserve, Crestmead, Marsden, Loganlea, Meadowbank, Kingston, Logan Central, Berrinba, Browns Plains, Heritage Park, Regents Park, Park Ridge, Drewvale, Stretton, Karawatha, Woodridge, Daisy Hill, Shailer Park, Springwood, Priestdale, Cornubia, Carbrook, Tanah Merah, Eagleby, Alberton, Stapylton, Mount Cotton, Sheldon, Thornlands, Victoria Point, Redland Bay, Point Talburpin, Woongoolba, Steiglitz, Cleveland, Alexandra Hills, Capalaba, Coochiemudlo Island, Macleay Island, Pannikin Island, Russell Island, and Lagoon Island.

Dr Leonida Cartas of Blue Spa Dental has recently become a participating dentist.

She is located at Suite 6, Level 8, 20 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria.

Members wanting to make an appointment can simply click on Dentists Melbourne for contact details.

Dr Leonida Cartas and the team look forward to assisting members of NobleDentist.

To learn how to save hundreds and even thousands of dollars off dental fees click on dental.

Surrounding suburbs include Middle Park, Prahhran, Toorak, Kooyong, St Kilda, Balaclava, Caulfield, Malvern, Armadale, Glen Iris, Camberwell, Hawthorn East, Canterbury, Hawthorn, Burnley, South Yarra, South Melbourne, Albert Park, Southbank, Docklands, Port Melbourne, Canterbury, Auburn, Glenferrie, Deepdene, Richmond, Balwyn, Kew East, Kew, Abbotsford, Collingwood, Fitzroy, Carlton, North Melbourne, Clifton Hill, Alphington, Fairfield, Northcote, Fitzroy North, Thornbury, Brunswick, Princes Hill, Parkville, Travancore, Kensington, West Melbourne, Yarraville, Kingsville, Seddon, Flemington, Ascot Vale, Moonee Ponds, Sunshine, Braybrook, Maidstone, Aberfeldie, Essendon, and Maribyrnong.

Dr Ivor Jacobson of Leichhardt Dental Centre has recently become a participating dental clinic.

Dr Ivor Jacobson is located at Shope 4B, Cnr Flood & Lords Street, Leichhardt, New South Wales.

Members wanting to make an appointment can simply click on Dental Clinic Sydney for contact details.

Dr Ivor Jacobson and the team look forward to assisting members of NobleDentist.

To learn how to save hundreds and even thousands of dollars off dental fees click on dentist.

Surrounding suburbs include Petersham, Lewisham, Summer Hill, Ashfield, Haberfield, Dobroyd Point, Lilyfield, Rozelle, Balmain, Birchgrove, Balmain East, Pyrmont, Glebe, Forest Lodge, Annandale, Camperdown, Stanmore, Newtown, Ultimo, Chippendale, Darlington, Redfern, Waterloo, Eveleigh, Erskineville, Alexandria, St Peters, Enmore, Sydenham, Mascot, Tempe, Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Hurlstone Park, Earlwood, Canterbury, Campsie, Ashbury, Croydon Park, Burwood Heights, Belmore, Lakemba, Strathfield, Homebush, Rodd Point, Five Dock, Russell Lea, Chiswick, Abbotsford, Wareemba, Canada Bay, Croydon, and Concord.

Dr Paulo Pinho of Wisdom Dental Emergency has recently become a participating dentist.

He is located at 63 Nicholson Street, Carlton, Victoria.

Members wanting to make an appointment can simply click on Dental Clinic Melbourne for contact details.

Dr Paulo Pinho and the team look forward to assisting members of NobleDentist.

To learn how to save hundreds and even thousands of dollars off dental fees click on dental.

Surrounding suburbs include Melbourne, Fitzroy, Southbank, South Melbourne, Albert Park, Middle Park, Port Melbourne, Docklands, West Melbourne, Yarraville, Seddon, Footscray West, Footscray, Maidstone, Flemington, Kensington, North Melbourne, Travancore, Ascot Vale, Moonee Ponds, Aberfeldie, Maribyrnong, Braybrook, Sunshine, Brooklyn, Kingsville, Tottenham, South Kingsville, Port Melbourne, Spotswood, Williamstown, Altona, Seaholme, Altona North, Albion, Ardeer, Deer Park, St Albans, Altona Meadows, Seabrook, Point Cook, and Derrimut.

This is an article by Adam Cresswell that was published recently in The Australian – Sydney, Australia.

THE attempt to close the gap in health outcomes between indigenous and other Australians will receive a further $200 million push from last night’s budget, reflecting the continuing slow progress in turning around generations of neglect by health planners.

More than half of the $204.3million allocated, or $131million, will be spent over three years on improving primary care services for remote indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, focusing particularly on children’s health.

The money will pay for follow-up treatments for ear, nose and throat conditions and dental problems identified during the Territory’s emergency response initiative, which launched a wave of child health checks.

It will also pay for a continuation of an organisation called the Remote Area Health Corps, which provides doctors, nurses and other health workers in remote areas, and an expansion of the existing outreach service that sends teams to treat children injured in abuse-related circumstances.

The next biggest slice of the funds, $58.3million, will be spent over four years on improving eye and ear health services for indigenous Australians, particularly in rural and remote areas.

The Government said the money is intended to help the 20,000 indigenous children who suffer from middle-ear infections severe enough to cause hearing loss, which affects their ability to follow school lessons and employment prospects. Indigenous Australians also face much higher rates of avoidable vision problems and have more difficulty getting treatment.

The funding will provide at least 1000 extra operations to correct eye and ear problems, and allow more than 10 regional teams to help prevent cases of middle-ear infection in the Northern Territory.

It will also enable an expansion of an existing scheme to send optometrists into remote communities to treat eyesight problems.

Dental care services will be boosted by $11million over four years, which the Government said was to address the “significantly worse” oral health of indigenous people. Aboriginal children can have about twice the number of tooth cavities compared with non-indigenous Australians and are more likely to have cavities that have never been filled or treated, the Government said.

Mobile dental facilities will be tested in a trial program to deliver dental services to rural indigenous communities. Indigenous people generally are 20 per cent less likely to visit a dentist and this gap widens if people are living outside capital cities.

The other element of the indigenous spending is an extra $3.8million over four years to improve pathology services for indigenous patients.

Diabetes is a particular problem for indigenous Australians, and diabetic patients require frequent monitoring and testing to check their blood sugar and other signs of metabolic performance.

The Government said the measures came on top of the $805million the commonwealth committed itself to spending last year, following discussions at the Council of Australian Governments to tackle chronic disease, including diabetes, in Aboriginal Australians.

“Improving indigenous eye, ear and oral health will help children get the start in life they deserve and deliver improvements in literacy and numeracy, which, in turn, has flow-on effects to improved employment outcomes,” the Government said.

This is an article by Janette Young that was recently published in The Bundaberg NewsMail – Australia.

WAITING times for private dental appointments have dwindled amid the global economic gloom, and the demands of customers have changed – they are seeking more of the basics.

“People don’t stop coming,” said Dr Philip Makepeace, who set up his Bundaberg dental surgery more than 22 years ago, amid the last big recession and has 5000 patients on his books.

Instead, he says, patients continue to have necessary work done but cut back on the extras.

Dr Clinton Haddon, who set up Coral Coast Dental in Bargara eight months ago with partner Dr Eva Kot, said: “We are still pretty flat out, but not compared to before when we had a six-week waiting list.”

Even during their busiest times, the practices keep space open for emergency or new patients.

The news on waiting lists for public patients is not so good, with the queue for oral health services at Bundaberg Hospital sitting at around 6070 people, one of whom has waited seven years.

“The primary focus of the oral health service is to meet urgent patient needs,” said Sunshine Coast-Wide Bay Health Service district chief executive officer Kevin Hegarty.

“The prioritising of urgent cases ensures timely access.

“However, that reduces our capacity to meet non-urgent demand.”

He said $9.5 million had been put aside for a new oral health clinic which would boost the chairs from six to 13.

Mr Hegarty pointed out that so far this financial year the Bundaberg oral health service had provided 13,456 “occasions of service” compared with 12,623 for the same period last year.

The outsourcing of public patients to private practices was up this year, from 293 for the 2007-08 financial year to 377 so far this year.

“The continued use of outsourcing will be subject to ongoing consideration for the remainder of the financial year within the (oral health) service’s overall budget,” he said.

Associate professor Hans Zoellner, chairman of the Association for the Promotion of Oral Health, said the waiting list for public dentistry in the Bundaberg region could be cut by up to 10% just through people taking up a little-known federal government chronic disease dental scheme.

This enabled them to use private dentists, with costs claimed back from Medicare.

To be eligible for up to $4250 in Medicare benefits for dental services over a two-year period, patients must have a chronic medical condition and complex care needs, and their oral health must hurt their general wellbeing.

A GP referral is required.

This is an article that was published recently by Liz Foschia in ABC Online – Australia.

A new study on public dental services in New South Wales has found some people have been waiting longer than two years for treatment.

A Council of Social Service survey of low income and disadvantaged clients from a range of non-government organisations has painted a grim picture of the state’s dental health system.

Alison Peters from the Council of Social Service says 60 per cent of respondents have been waiting at least six months for dental treatment.

One in five has been waiting longer than a year and in some cases as long as two years.

“What we also found is that there’s a bit of a ‘revolving door’ waiting list occurring,” Ms Peters said.

“You get on a waiting list to have your teeth checked; if you require treatment, you then go on a waiting list again.”

She says while the State Government needs to boost funding for public dental health.

“There has been some investment by the New South Wales Government and that’s greatly appreciated, but it’s still not enough,” she said.

“We, the Oral Health Alliance, believe that we need about another $90 million per annum just to bring New South Wales into line with other states.”

The Opposition’s health spokeswoman, Jillian Skinner, says about 160,000 people are on the waiting list for checks and treatment in the public dental system, and the number is growing.

“Only 20 per cent of our dentists choose to work in the public system so we’ve got a very big problem, and we pay our public dentists a lot less than they can earn out in the private sector,” she said.

Waiting for federal funds

But the State Government says it is the federal Coalition’s fault that people are waiting months for public dental services in New South Wales.

Health Minister John Della Bosca blames the decision in 1996 to axe the Commonwealth dental health program.

“Across Australia the whole system was thrown into chaos,” he said.

He says the Rudd Government is proposing to re-introduce assistance, which would see New South Wales get $90 million, but the Coalition is blocking the assistance in the Senate.

“After a decade of disinterest we now have a hope, in fact we now have a proposal on the table for the Rudd Government to re-introduce Commonwealth assistance to work with the states on a public dental health program,” he said.

“Unfortunately there’s people in New South Wales waiting for much-needed urgent dental work because [Federal Opposition Leader] Malcolm Turnbull is playing politics in the Senate.”

Mr Della Bosca says once that money is “liberated,” the state will be able to reduce waiting lists.

This is an article by Mark Metherell that was recently published in The Penrith Star – Sydney, NSW, Australia.

MEDICARE Australia is investigating allegations that doctors, dentists and patients are colluding to rort the Medicare dental scheme.

The dentistry program, which can finance up to $4250 worth of dental work, is believed to have become a big earner for some dentists.

The Medicare inquiries are believed to be focusing on doctors who are referring to dentists patients who do not have the medical problems necessary to justify Medicare cover for the dental work.

By early this year, 94,673 patients in NSW had benefited from Medicare dentistry, with many receiving dentures and crowns that previously they could not afford.

The Herald has been told that Medicare has identified “compliance concerns” with the scheme, introduced by the Howard government but targeted for removal by the Rudd Government.

Potential rorts have been identified as a result of Medicare’s risk assessments, reports by the public to Medicare fraud tip-off line and complaints by state law enforcement agencies.

Medicare, which can scan its computer databank to identify suspect claims, is targeting dentists who have wrongly claimed upfront for future services, claims made by patients who do not fit the eligibility requirements, and collusion by doctors, dentists and patients.

Under the scheme, patients cannot be reimbursed by Medicare for the dental work until the referring doctor has notified Medicare that a care plan has been prepared.

The Senate has twice blocked Government moves to abandon dental Medicare, which costs about $250 million a year and rising.

The Senate impasse has meant that the Government has refused to introduce its Commonwealth dental scheme, which was promised to provide 1 million services over three years to people on long public dentistry waiting lists.

The Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, said the current arrangements meant millionaires could get dental treatment under Medicare if they had a medical condition, while many pensioners who could not afford private dentists had to wait years for treatment at a public clinic.

Associate Professor Hans Zoellner, who has campaigned to retain dental Medicare, said that while it was “very likely” that some dentists and doctors were doing the wrong thing, he believed most of the treatments so far provided were warranted.

Professor Zoellner, of Sydney University’s dental school, is chairman of the Association for the Promotion of Oral Health. From his analysis of the dental services financed by Medicare, the average “is getting the sort of care you would expect for someone with a big backlog of untreated disease”.

He had checked claims by critics of dental Medicare that the scheme was generating excessive crown and bridgework and was being squandered on cosmetic dentistry.

“Overall, data indicate a reasonable use of public Medicare funds for delivery of dental services … The high incidence of treatments for pain, extractions or other surgical procedures supports this interpretation.

“No sensible patient presents for extraction or other surgical procedure without clear clinical need.”

He said the requirement for people to have a chronic disease in order to benefit from Medicare was a flaw.

Everybody, “whether they have a chronic disease or not”, should be able to get the treatment they need.