Each year, hundreds of ACT residents are admitted to hospital for dental conditions that could have been prevented, and the hospitalisation rate is even higher in other parts of Australia.
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In 2009-10, there were more than 60,000 potentially preventable hospitalisations in Australia as a result of dental conditions, including 610 in the ACT.
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The hospitalisation rate was 1.8per 1000 people in the ACT and 2.8per 1000 Australia-wide, according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare statistics.
An advisory council on dental health is to report to the Federal Government next month on options for improving access to dental services for low-income earners.
Associate Professor Hans Zoellner, of the Association for the Promotion of Oral Health, said most people admitted to hospital for dental problems required extractions and had major decay but some had life-threatening conditions.
''It wouldn't be an unreasonable guess to say somewhere between 1000 and 2000 people a year are there for life-threatening infections,'' he said.
Professor Zoellner works at Westmead Hospital in Sydney where each year 60-80 patients are admitted to the intensive-care unit or infectious diseases ward with major dental infections that had spread to other parts of the body.
''They're going to die of a toothache unless they get the surgical drainage, the airway maintenance, and the intravenous antibiotics. It would have been nice if they could just have a filling. It would just stop the problem,'' he said.
ACT public dental services clinical director David Griffiths said a typical hospital admission for dental problems cost taxpayers about $7000.
Dr Griffiths said dental-related hospital admissions in the ACT had fallen in recent years. ''We've cut down the number of youngsters we need to send to hospital. And while we initially focussed on reducing child and youth hospitalisations it's happened across the board.''
A greater range of procedures were now able to be carried out in public dental clinics.
The ACT Health Directorate offers low-cost dental services for children aged under 14 years and for older teenagers and adults with ACT Centrelink-issued pension concession and health-care cards.
The ACT has the lowest levels of decay for baby teeth in Australia. More than 28per cent of Australians avoided or delayed visiting a dentist in 2010 because of the cost.
Professor Zoellner has been lobbying for the staged introduction of a universal dental insurance scheme.
''I really believe that the public expectation is that dentistry needs to be in Medicare,'' he said. '' Despite Government reticence to take action, [no one] who objects to dental Medicare has yet come forward with any cogent argument that explains how the mouth is not part of the body.''
The Australian Dental Association wants a targeted scheme focussed on the 30 per cent of Australians who struggle to afford dental care.