Queensland pensioner Don Batty has always looked after his teeth, but age has taken its toll.<\/p>\n
These days, the former NSW Police officer finds it hard to look in the mirror.<\/p>\n
“I’m 80 years old now and my teeth have started to disintegrate,” he told the ABC.<\/p>\n
“I’m very embarrassed by my teeth and I try not to smile because I frighten people.”<\/p>\n
The Toowoomba resident is missing multiple molars, which makes it hard to chew food.<\/p>\n
His dental issues affect his diet, speech and confidence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Queensland pensioner has been waiting for public dental care for nearly two years. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)<\/p>\n
He has been living like this for nearly two years because he cannot afford to visit a private dentist.<\/p>\n
“It would be totally impossible.<\/p>\n
“There is no way I can save enough money to spend the thousands that are required to go to a private dentist.”<\/p>\n
Mr Batty is among 140,000 Queenslanders waiting for non-urgent public dental care.<\/p>\n
More than 10,000 patients have been added to the queue in the past year.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been waiting now for about 21 months,” Mr Batty said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got a very, very good dental service, but it’s overwhelmed. There’s no way they can deal with the number of people in this city and surrounding towns with the resources they’ve got.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mr Batty is among 140,000 people in Queensland waiting for non-urgent public dental care. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)<\/p>\n
A national issue<\/p>\n
Data obtained by the ABC shows patients in every state and territory can expect to wait months, if not years, for non-urgent public dental care.<\/p>\n
Around one-third of Australians are eligible for the free or low-cost public dental services, which are delivered by state and territory governments with some funding from the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
There are variations in how states and territories record and report their data, but the figures are similar.<\/p>\n
Queensland Health says it is “desirable” to provide a patient with general dental care within two years.<\/p>\n
In New South Wales, the “maximum recommended waiting time” for patients seeking non-urgent routine care is around 18 months.<\/p>\n
The Victorian Health Department said the average wait for the state’s non-urgent public dental services was 12.4 months.<\/p>\n
The most recent data available shows the longest wait times were in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tasmania and the Northern Territory have the longest waiting times for dental care. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
In Tasmania, 50 per cent of patients removed from the waitlist in the past 12 months had been there for more than 2.5 years.<\/p>\n
In the NT, the median wait time for a first appointment from 2023 to 2024 was also around 2.5 years, according to data compiled by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).<\/p>\n
The AIHW also found about 10 per cent of patients in Tasmania and the NT waited nearly five years for their first appointment.<\/p>\n
The shortest waiting times were in Western Australia, where last year patients received non-urgent care after an average of 5.4 months.<\/p>\n
In South Australia, the average wait was seven months.<\/p>\n
No average or median wait list data was available for the ACT.<\/p>\n
Each state and territory government told the ABC that patients in priority groups or those requiring urgent care did not have to wait for treatment.<\/p>\n
Australian Dental Association president Chris Sanzaro said the issue was adding pressure to other parts of the health system.<\/p>\n
“Around Australia there’s nearly 90,000 potentially preventable hospitalisations each year due to dental disease.<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of links between poor dental health and overall health. The one link we know is very strong is between diabetes and poor dental health.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Peter Breadon from the Grattan Institute says the system is overwhelmed. (Supplied: Billy Draper)<\/p>\n
Grattan Institute health program director Peter Breadon said the public dental system was underfunded and “overwhelmed”.<\/p>\n
“Of all the funding that goes into dental care in Australia, about 60 per cent comes out of the pockets of patients, in the form of fees,” he said.<\/p>\n
“To put that in perspective \u2026 it’s nine times the share that comes from patients when you see a GP.”<\/p>\n
The Greens push to add dental to Medicare<\/p>\n
As the new federal parliament prepares to begin its work this week, the Greens are vowing to ramp up pressure on the government to add dental to Medicare.<\/p>\n
Despite being nearly wiped out in the lower house at the federal election, the minor party is returning to Canberra with the sole balance of power in the Senate.<\/p>\n
This means the government will rely entirely on its support to pass legislation when the Coalition is not on board.<\/p>\n
Greens Health spokesperson Jordon Steele-John said he would be “pulling every lever as an MP” to get dental added to Medicare.<\/p>\n
“We are excited and energised as a party to get to work,” Mr Steele-John said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Greens Jordon Steele-John says he will be pulling all levers to get dental added to Medicare. (ABC News: Tahlia Davis)<\/p>\n
When asked if the Greens would refuse to back bills if the government didn’t agree to add dental to Medicare, he did not rule it out.<\/p>\n
“There may well be moments where there is an opportunity to raise the issue in the course of the passage of a debate or in the course of a passage of a piece of legislation,” he said.<\/p>\n
But he added his “starting point” would be to work with people across parliament to create a consensus on the issue.<\/p>\n
Mr Steele-John described the beginning of the new parliamentary term as “an opportunity to strike a new tone”.<\/p>\n
“To signal clearly you are willing and excited to work with people of goodwill to get something done for the community,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Greens have previously indicated they will take a less hardline approach in the upcoming parliament, after losing three lower house MPs at the federal election, including then-leader Adam Bandt.<\/p>\n
In the previous term, the party used its senate numbers to block a bill designed to ease the housing crisis, as it pushed for more rights for renters.<\/p>\n
New leader Larissa Waters said the Greens wanted to be “firm but constructive” in the new term.<\/p>\n