Thursday, 7 March 2024

 Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (17:56): (775) The action I am seeking from the Minister for Health is a reduction in the government’s public dental general care wait time targets in the upcoming state budget. Last year Victoria’s state budget set its target wait time for those accessing public dental care at an embarrassing 23 months. This government thinks it is aspirational to aim for someone to wait 23 months to see a dentist. But in truth the real wait time for everyday people in the community is in fact another 12 months on top of that, because once you have been seen by a dentist in the public system you have to wait a whole year until you are placed back onto the waitlist, and each time you get a new problem or even just need to access routine care you go to the bottom of the waiting list. While some very urgent problems may be seen a bit sooner than others, pain is not used to determine urgency, because as one public dentist told us, everyone on the waiting list is in pain.

Most people in this place will have experienced dental pain at some stage. It is awful, even just for a few days or weeks. Imagine being in that pain for years. This is the reality for many thousands of Victorians right now. In the three years that this government is happy for people to wait in pain to access dental care a whole raft of health problems can emerge. Let us not forget, just like your tibia or humerus or vertebrae, teeth are bones. They are part of the body, and when your teeth are not healthy, the rest of your body can get sick too. Periodontal disease – the gum disease that can result from poor oral hygiene – can lead to bone deterioration and teeth loss, but when high levels of bacteria from this disease enter the bloodstream, it can cause a whole host of other complications: heart disease and stroke, kidney disease, depression and even dementia. Not to mention the impact of chronic pain on sleep, eating, mood and general functioning or the social impacts of poor dentition, like shame and stigma, reduced employment opportunities, reduced housing opportunities and reduced confidence.

While the government is content with a 23-month target for the public dental waiting list, thousands of Victorians are suffering immensely, and avoidably, for years. It is time to put teeth back in the body, and that means a commitment to timely access to public dental care.