With Dental Health Week upon us, the National Rural Health
Alliance is calling on people in the Hunter to take care and look after their
oral health.
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| Dental care can be hard to find in the regions [Image: Fonterra]. |
Rural and remote Australia have a lower number of dentists
as the capital cities do, with fewer than 40 dentists per 100 000 people.
This is compared to the more than 60 dentists per 100 00
living in major cities like Sydney and Melbourne.
“There are simply not enough dentists in rural and remote
Australia where they are needed,” said NRHA CEO Kim Webber.
Roughly 9 percent of all potentially preventable
hospitalisations in Australia are because of dental health, with children
making up the highest numbers of these hospitalisations.
“For young people, having health teeth is fundamental to
their long term health and wellbeing,” said Dr Webber.
“For their sake we have to find more innovative ways to
ensure rural and remote Australians can benefit from good dental health.”
It comes as the Royal Flying Doctor Service looks to double
its dentistry output, and called on both Labor and the Coalition to provide
another $11 million after the election.
Both parties agreed to do so.
"Providing $11 million over the next two years for
flying doctor dental outreach will allow the expansion of our existing dental
services," RFDS Chief Executive Martin Laverty said, via ABC.
Laverty has said the additional funding would allow the RFDS
to potentially increase its employee number to more than 40 000.
