Tasmanian children are being denied or delayed dental check-ups because of a shortage of oral healthcare staff in the state.
The Tasmanian Department of Health offers dental health services for babies and children under 18.
These include check-ups, preventative treatments like cleaning and X-rays, mouthguards and advice on tooth and gum health, with the cost of the services bulk-billed through Medicare.
Hobart woman Rae Earl told ABC Radio Hobart she had been using the dental services for her now-15-year-old son for at least a decade.
But she said she tried to book her son in for his annual check-up on Monday only to be “triaged”.
“She took me through a set of questions, and basically, the [upshot] of that was that because he wasn’t in any dental pain, they weren’t booking people in for routine check-ups for the foreseeable future.”
“Now that is a seismic change, if not in policy, then in practicality.”
Ms Earl said she did not know when she would be able to get her son in for his appointment.
Parent Mel Pearce says not everyone is able to take their kids to a private dentist. (Supplied: Mel Pearce)
Another parent, Mel Pearce from Tasmania’s north-west, said it took about seven months to get her then-two-year-old in for a check-up.
“It wasn’t until he was three that we could get him in … then it had to be rescheduled a number of times due to their availability, which I completely sympathise with, but it alerted me to a concern with what is actually happening here,” she said.
“I guess some of us could potentially take our children to a private dentist if we have that privilege … but it just made me think, wow, what about those people out there who don’t have that opportunity or can’t do that?
“It’s so important, our teeth, and our children being so young.
“It’s a nightmare trying to brush your two to three-year-old’s teeth, so making sure that we’re doing OK as well, it’s something we really need.”
Dentist shortage across the state
The secretary of the Australian Dental Association of Tasmania, Gavin Quek, told ABC Radio Hobart there were delays for check-ups because of issues with the workforce and capacity.
Dr Quek said Oral Health Services was focusing resources on patients with pain or emergencies — something that was happening across the whole public health sector.
Dr Quek said there was a shortage of dentists across the state.
“Partly because we don’t have a dental school in Tasmania. So every dentist that is working here studied interstate or overseas,” Dr Quek said.
He said children who had previously been deemed high risk would likely get into the dentist for a check-up sooner than those deemed medium or low risk.
The Department of Health has been contacted for comment.
In June, Tasmania’s auditor-general published a report into oral health services in the state, finding that while Oral Health Services Tasmania provided timely care for children and adults requiring emergency treatment, the service was struggling to meet demand for non-urgent general care.
Auditor-General Martin Thompson found that recruitment of oral health therapists continued to be a challenge in the north and north-west, with a steady decline in the number of check-ups provided for children in those regions in the past decade.
Data from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that Tasmania has the worst prevalence of tooth loss in Australia, with 22 per cent of adults having fewer than 21 of their 32 natural teeth.