Oral health and dental care in Australia

A recent report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare highlights the trends in oral health historically.  Oral health and dental care in Australia: key facts and figures, suggests that although there have been some improvements over the long term, there have been some concerns in recent years. For example, although there was a drop in the average number of decayed children's baby teeth from 1977 to 1995, since then there has been a gradual rise.

Dental visiting patterns have generally increased with the proportion of people over 15 who made a dental visit in the previous 12 months increasing from 56% in 1994 to 62% in 2010.  The cost of visiting the dentist remains a concern for some people, and there has been a growth in the supply of dental practitioners in recent years.