Vicki McKaig can now enjoy ice cream again without experiencing excruciating pain from her teeth.
The 71-year-old Sydney grandmother put off visits to the dentist for two years due to the cost of dental treatment.
“Being a retired senior, you never have that much money to play around with so my teeth weren’t a priority,” Ms McKaig said.
The shooting pains and bleeding gums Ms McKaig experienced were the result of cavities and gum disease.
“When I had cold food, it was like a sharp pain and I had to really stop eating,” she said.
The opportunity to get her teeth fixed came when Ms McKaig visited her GP, who put her forward for a trial dental scheme for seniors which treated her for free.
The free treatment meant she didn’t have to visit a hospital emergency department.
But thousands of other elderly Australians are less lucky.
In 2022-23 nearly 16,000 Australians aged over 65 were hospitalised with potentially preventable dental issues — an increase from about 10,500 in 2016-17, data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows.
By 2027-28, that figure is likely to increase by a further 42 per cent, according to projections by the Australian Dental Association (ADA).
Ahead of next week’s budget, the ADA has called on the federal government to make the oral health of older Australians a national priority and commit to a Seniors Dental Benefits Scheme (SDBS), which would provide a capped maximum of $1,132 of free dental treatment to eligible seniors every two years.
The peak body estimates about 2.8 million Australians over the age of 65 would be eligible for the scheme, which would work similarly to the Child Dental Benefits Schedule.
ADA president Chris Sanzaro said it would get people in the door earlier for preventative check-ups, cleans and X-rays.
“Finding those [dental] problems when they’re a lot smaller makes the treatment easier to achieve and more cost-effective … it’s a way better outcome,” he said.
Dr Sanzaro, who practices out of Launceston in Tasmania, said seniors were being treated with antibiotics and painkillers for their dental issues when they presented to their GP or hospital emergency department.
“They’re going to do the best they can to help those people … but GPs and emergency department doctors, try as they might, they’re not dentists and they can’t provide definitive dental treatment,” he said.
‘Desperate’ need for more money
The idea of a SDBS is not new.
In 2021, the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety recommended the government establish a seniors dental scheme by January 2023.
Then in November 2023, a Senate report into the Provision of and Access to Dental Services in Australia also recommended the government establish a SDBS.
“It’s rather frustrating … there’s been a whole bunch of bodies calling for action in this space and it’s falling on Deaf ears,” Dr Sanzaro said.
The cost of the scheme has been calculated by the Parliamentary Budget Office as $1.14 billion in 2025-26 and $1.26 billion in 2026-27.
Mark Wotherspoon, a dentist of 40 years, said the need for more public funding for seniors’ dental care was “desperate”.
“I am seeing years of neglect prior to people entering aged care facilities and the sad thing is, nearly all of it can be prevented with a little bit of treatment,” he said.
As part of his practice, Dr Wotherspoon visits 20 aged care facilities around Wagga Wagga in NSW.
“There’s no doubt that a SDBS would see almost an immediate impact on the state of oral health and oral health-related quality of life in aged care,” he said.
Dr Wotherspoon shared clinical photos with the ABC of some of the cases of poor oral health that he’d witnessed in nursing homes.
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He said the photos reflected the dental health of seniors across Australia, not just in Wagga Wagga.
“All our seniors want and deserve is to be able to chew their food and hug their grandchildren and you can’t do that with a mouth full of busted teeth,” he said.
Health Minister Mark Butler said the government had no immediate plans to change the way dental care was funded.
“I’ve tried to be honest with people that the government’s focus right now is strengthening Medicare and rebuilding general practice after a decade of cuts and neglect from the Liberals,” Mr Butler said in a statement.
“I can’t say to people that in the short term there’s going to be any change to dental, but I do recognise in the longer term there’s a lot of ambition for dental to be covered by Medicare.”
The opposition was contacted for comment.
The Greens have had a policy for more than a decade of funding dental treatment for all Australians through Medicare.
Dr Sanzaro said while that model was admirable, it was “unaffordable and unachievable” with the estimated cost up to $13 billion.
“We think we’re much better off spending taxpayer money looking at areas of the population where people can’t currently access dental care, like our most vulnerable seniors,” he said.
‘They need something for people like me’
Like thousands of other senior Australians, Adelaide pensioner Bill Henderson is having to wait to have his teeth fixed, with uncomfortable consequences.
“The longer I leave it, the worse it gets,” he said.
The 84-year-old grandfather wears a partial upper denture and his lower teeth have deteriorated.
Mr Henderson had some work done last year at a state government clinic, but they couldn’t treat all his dental issues as it was too expensive.
He’s now waiting and spreading out the treatment with his dentist, to be able to afford it.
If a SDBS existed, Mr Henderson would be eligible.
“They need to have something like Medicare for people like me,” he said.
“I’d call it Dentacare.”
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