NSW Parliamentary Inquiry reports on Dental Services

The final report of a NSW Legislative Council Inquiry into Dental Services in NSW was published on 31 March. The Report highlights a growing crisis in provision of public dental care, with funding of NSW services the lowest in Australia on a per capita basis.

In the Chair's Foreword to the Report, Jan Burnswoods MLC states:

"To provide more comprehensive public dental services the Committee makes a range of recommendations, on the premise that sufficient funding to implement such recommendations must be made available. The Committee emphasises the need for both the Commonwealth and State Governments to provide additional funding for dental services, and examines Commonwealth incentives on private health insurance and the possible extension of Medicare.

The Committee has heard that access to public dental services is affected by unmanageable waiting lists, difficulties in accessing treatment, particularly in rural and remote areas, and a shortage of dental practitioners working in public dentistry. The quality of care that public dentistry staff can provide to patients is affected by time constraints due to the large number of patients requiring treatment and the resources available in public dental clinics. The Committee has made recommendations addressing each of these issues, with a view to ensuring that public dental services are sufficiently staffed and resourced to provide an adequate level of care.

The Committee learnt that the demand for both private and public dental practitioners is predicted to increase in the next ten years and has therefore made recommendations on issues pertaining to the dental workforce and the education and training of dental practitioners.

Dental disease is largely preventable and the Committee recognises that greater awareness of the importance of oral health needs to be generated through targeted education campaigns, similar to the ‘Slip, Slop, Slap’ campaign. The Committee also recommends that educative programs should be run through schools and early childhood health centres. The Committee received a large amount of evidence on the issue of fluoridation as a preventive measure, and sets out the arguments for and against fluoridating public water supplies."