The latest snapshot of the nation’s dental health was released on Friday and it reveals that a growing number of Australians are unhappy with the way their teeth look.
There has been a substantial increase in people reporting the detrimental social impacts as a result of their oral health in the last 30 years, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s Oral Health and Dental Care report found.
Looking deeper into this issue, household income has a direct impact.
In a 2021 survey of 8,000 Australians, conducted by the University of Adelaide, more than a third of adults in lower income households felt uncomfortable about their dental appearance. This is a slightly higher proportion than for all Australians (31.6%) but significantly more than those from higher income households (23.8%).
Overall the survey found that discomfort with dental appearance was most associated with lower household incomes, younger age groups, being Indigenous (47%) and having year 10 or less of schooling (38%).
About a third of Australian households earned $62,000 or less in 2019-20, according to the latest Survey of Income and Housing.
The cost of dental care is a significant barrier to access, the AIHW report has found.
More than 2 million Australians reported avoiding or delaying dental care due to cost in 2016-17. Data from the same year showed more than half of the cost of visiting the dentist was borne by patients, which was even higher for those without private health insurance.
The waitlist for publicly covered dental care can be years long.
Some backbench Labor MPs have recently advocated for expanding Medicare to cover dental but the health minister, Mark Butler, has said it is not something the government is looking at.
The Greens have proposed opening more than 1,000 health clinics nationwide to in part provide free dental care.
