Tasmanian dental deal

About 89,000 Tasmanian children will be eligible for dental treatment under a deal announced by the Federal and Tasmanian Governments. The $70 million scheme will start next January and be followed by a $40 million program aimed at giving 12,000 pensioners, sole parents and other concession-card holders access to free or low-cost dental care. There are 14,000 adults on Tasmania’s waiting list. Welcoming the funding, the President of Australian Dental Association Tasmanian Branch, Dr Wayne Ottaway, said the children’s program needed to focus on prevention of dental disease in children.

The Federal Government announced last year that the $2.7 billion national children’s dental scheme, called Grow Up Smiling, will start on 1 January 2014, however no announcements have yet been made about the way the scheme might work in Victoria.