Dental attendance patterns and oral health status has been published by the AIHW this week, and found a significant oral health gap between Australians who regularly visit a dentist and those who don’t. Surveys were conducted to ascertain self-reported patterns of dental attendance, and participants were categorised into "Favourable", "Intermediate" and "Unfavourable" attenders. The group with an unfavourable pattern of dental attendance (about 30% of Australian adults), had significantly poorer oral health outcomes than those with favourable attendance. They were were 3.7 times more likely to have had a tooth extracted in the previous year and were also more likely to report barriers to accessing dental care than those with favourable attendance. In particular, they were 3 times more likely to report delaying or avoiding dental care due to cost and being very afraid or distressed when making a dental visit.
The Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet has also published an oral health report, Review of Indigenous oral health. The authors found that indigenous Australians have poorer oral health than other Australians, suffering from more caries, periodontal diseases, and tooth loss than non-Indigenous people. Tooth decay among the Indigenous population more commonly goes untreated, leading to more extractions.
This discrepancy is attributed in part to the fact that access to culturally appropriate and timely dental care is often not available to Indigenous people, especially in rural and remote areas. Other information on oral health such as culturally appropriate resources about maintaining healthy teeth and mouths, and nutritional guidance on how much sugar is contained in certain foods and drinks, is also less available for the Indigenous Australian population.
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