AFFORDABILITY OF DENTAL CARE IN AUSTRALIA – A COMPARATIVE STUDY Dental problems are quite prevalent among the Australian population which is evident from the statistics conducted in 2011 by the Australian institute of Health and welfare (AIHW) that states: 26% of adults have dental decay, 23% of the population with severe gum diseases, 15% with frequent toothache
Total Dental workforce in Australia Australia has a total of 11,551 practicing dentists as recorded in 2010 out of which about 83% work in the private sector. This is one of the main reasons that the dental health cost is alarmingly very high in Australia. The AIHW statistics also reveals the total dental workforce: For 100,000 people, there are only about 50 dental therapists, 3 dental hygienists, 2 oral health therapists and 4 dental prosthetists. The oral hygiene workforce can be divided into general dentists and specialists. Given below is a list of the total number of specialists: Specialty Orthodontics Periodontics Prosthodontics Oral pathology Oral and maxillofacial surgery Endodontics Pediatric dentistry Dento maxillofacial radiology Other speciality Total
Total 533 153 171 11 212 121 103 8 73 1386
It is evident that only 1386 dentists are specialists whilst the remaining 10165 are general dentists. Since the number of specialists is quite low, the cost of special treatments is high and unaffordable by many.
Cost Analysis Though Australians have the best dental facilities, people tend to move off to some other countries owing to the high costs for each treatment which is already given in the previous section. The most visited countries for this purpose are India, Malaysia, Philippines & Thailand. The average cost incurred for some of the dental treatments in Australia, Thailand and Malaysia are given below: