Oral Health And Dental Care - 1541 Words

Table 3. Full time dentist employed per 100,000 population in the public and private practice sectores, states and territories, 2013. NSW Vic Qld WA SA Tas ACT NT Total Public 7.6 7.9 10.3 8.6 11.00 6.5 6.1 11.7 8.6 Private 50.8 44.6 48.0 45.4 47.6 31.2 59.9 27.0 47.4 Total 58.5 52.5 58.3 54.0 58.6 37.7 65.9 38.7 56.0 From: Oral health and dental care in Australia: keyfacts and figures 2015 (Chrisopoulos, Harford Ellershaw 2016, p. 67). 3.3 The impact of neglected oral disease Dental decay is the second most expensive diet-related disease in Australia, the cost of this disease is comparable to heart disease and diabetes. During 2007-08, the annual expenditure of dental care in Australia was $6.1 billion (Department of Health,†¦show more content†¦2008). Recent studies have considered that periodontal disease associated with several systemic conditions including adverse pregnancy outcome (Goepfert et al. 2004), cardiovascular disease (Bansal, Khatri Taneja 2013), respiratory disease (Scannapieco Ho 2001), renal malfunction (Ardalan et al. 2011), osteoporosis (Otomo-Corgel 2012), diabetes (Preshaw et al. 2012), cancer (Fitzpatrick Katz 2010), rheumatoid arthritis (Bartold, Marshall Haynes 2005), erectile dysfunction (Wu, Chung Lin 2012) and Alzheimer’s disease (Kamer et al 2008). On a health system level, difficulty in accessing oral health care and delays in receiving treatment often leads to ser ious infection, pain and poorer long-term health outcomes. As a result, some people may have to visit emergency departments and require hospital admission to manage infections or seek the assistance of general practitioners (GPs) for oral health complaints or infections (Australian Government 2015). 4. Australian School Dental Programs Australian School Dental Program was the first involvement of Commonwealth in the provision of dental benefits. The scheme is the result of agreement between representatives of the states, territories and the Commonwealth in 1973 (Commonwealth Department of Health 1981). The responsibility for funding, leadership and coordination is by Commonwealth, whereas, while the states, and territories were