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Water fluoridation the solution for dental waiting lists
13 December 2006
More than two million Queenslanders are eligible for public sector dental treatment which is expected to be delivered by only 300 dentists state-wide, more than 50 of whom are students under direct supervision and many others being transient.
Australian Dental Association Queensland Branch president Martin Webb said public sector dentistry is in crisis and near breaking point due to chronic under-funding and burgeoning demand as demonstrated by waiting lists of up to five or six years.
Dr Webb said state-wide water fluoridation would rapidly and significantly decrease the demand on services and the beneficial effects and cost savings of this would be seen within two years.
“At Beenleigh, for example, there were 5800 people waiting an average of 82 months for treatment. At Logan there were 8200 people waiting an average of 66 months. At Southport there are 1900 people waiting an average of 64 months. This is unacceptable and unsustainable.”
In his report last year, health reformer Peter Forster referred to the cost and consequences of Queensland’s failure to fluoridate. The consequences are waiting lists stretching up to five and six years.
Dr Webb said despite higher spending on oral health than other states, the scope of the problem continues to grow in Queensland.
“Children under four years of age are waiting up to six months for general anaesthetics for extensive dental treatment. This is a terrible state of affairs for the so-called Smart State.
“Queensland Health’s School Dental Service is taking longer to rotate back to visit schools and when they arrive at some schools, dental staff are finding epidemics of decay that are causing them to fall behind further.”
“The State Government’s policy supports water fluoridation, but no priority is being put on this obvious means of addressing the crisis in oral health in Queensland.
“The Beattie Government has offered to fund infrastructure for local governments that wish to introduce it – but this is buck-passing because health is a state responsibility, not a local government one.
“The government needs to take steps to ensure water fluoridation is widely available, as it is in other states. The obvious way to do that is to arrange the decision-making process so that it can refer the matter to the chief health officer, ask for a recommendation and act on it.
“Yet another survey, this time conducted by Central Queensland University, has shown that the majority (76 percent) of Queenslanders want water fluoridation,” Dr Webb said.
Water fluoridation is supported by the Queensland Oral Health Alliance, which involves the Queensland branches of the Australian Dental Association, the Australian Medical Association, the Pharmaceutical Society and the Public Health Association Australia.
Dental waiting lists (PDF - 59kb)
Please note page 6 in pdf shows 5800 Beenleigh residents waiting an average of 82 months - nearly 7 years - and 8200 Logan residents waiting 66 months - 5.5 years - for dental treatment.
Contact: Dr Martin Webb on 5494 2424 or 0412 781 137
All of the information included on this web site is accurate to the best of knowledge of the Australian Dental Association (Queensland Branch). To make the text more readable for non-scientists, ADAQ has deliberately minimised attributions and links to supporting files or scientific attachments. However these sources are readily available if required and many can be found via www.health.qld.gov.au/fluoride. |
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Give Queenslanders something to smile about