Bendigo dentists are trying to save children's teeth far too late because inflation has left government help out of reach for too many families, a La Trobe University expert says.
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Dr Virginia Dickson-Swift wants a revamp of who is eligible for dental care funding through the federal government's family tax A benefit to cover households where two adults are earning more than $80,000 a year.
"There's no way many of these families would be able to afford to go to the dentist," Dr Dickson-Swift said.
Australia's economic troubles were making things worse, she said.
"What's the first thing to go when cost of living pressures arrive? The literature tells us it's things like dental hygiene activities - stopping going and getting a clean every six months or getting as many check-ups," Dr Dickson-Swift said.
"The dentists are telling me kids are turning up with more significant issues than in the past."
One obvious fix would be to up the number of children eligible for dental care subsidies by extending it to families earning something like $100,000 a year, Dr Dickson-Swift said.
The government also needed to do a much better job telling people the long-standing help actually existed, she said.
"People don't know about this benefit, it's been around for a while but I don't think it has been well advertised. Dentists tell us people eligible for it are not using it in the way that they should," Dr Dickson Swift said.
The problem is apparent to La Trobe University student Edmund Pan, who has been on dental placements at a public health service recently.
"A lot of the parents don't really know to take children in for check-ups," he said.
Mr Pan said regular check-ups from an early age would help avoid the anxieties children might feel if their first experience of a dentist was having a tooth pulled.
Dental health system 'broken'
That might be easier said than done in a broader oral health system labeled "broken" by a federal parliamentary inquiry looking for solutions.
"Reforming the way in which oral and dental health services are funded and coordinated is a huge task, and one that governments across the political spectrum have been reluctant to take on," the inquiry said in an interim report released earlier in 2023.
The government has been contacted for comment.
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Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
