Waiting puts the bite on Berwick

PUBLIC dental waiting lists are causing a toothache for Berwick residents with many waiting up to 33 months for treatment.
New figures from March 2006, released by the Department of Human Services, show that public dental patients are waiting up to 33 months to access dental services at the Casey Cardinia Community Health Service in Berwick.
This waiting time is up one month from December 2005 when the average waiting time was 32 months.
Public waiting times for dentures at the Berwick clinic were two years as of June 2006, down from an average 37-month wait in March 2006.
President of the Australian Dental Association Victorian Branch (ADAVB), Dr Greg Morris, said the latest data was a mix of good and bad news for public dental patients with some areas having much shorter waits while others had grown a little.
Dr Morris said Victorian Oral Health Alliance’s (VOHA) detailed profile of public waiting times helped people to see the local impact of recent reports that 650,000 people around Australia were on dental waiting lists.
Dr Morris said that VOHA’s current focus was to draw the attention of Victorians to public dental issues, offering them the opportunity to send messages to candidates contesting the State election, urging them to take steps to improve this situation.
The VOHA has recently launched a website that allows Victorians to advocate for improved access to public dental services via letter or email to their local MP or State Health Minister.
People can visit www.voha.org for further information and to voice their concern.
Dr Mark Bowman, vice-president of the ADAVB said the long wait for treatment would likely increase people’s pain levels and further worsens their dental problems.
“Cavities might get bigger and problems could become worse or harder to manage,” he said.
Dr Bowman said the lengthy wait for dental treatment could have serious effects on people’s general health, as there were strong links between gum disease and heart disease and diabetes and the premature birth of babies.
“There are significant health risks associated with waiting a long time for treatment. The government has been active with improving fluoridation in water but more needs to be spent to improve public waiting times,” he said.
Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said a concerted effort by the State Government to improve dental care was paying off, with the number of people seeking general dental care falling from 262,440 in December 2004, to 110,579 at the end of June this year – a drop of 58 per cent.
Ms Pike said the new figures also showed the waiting list for dentures had dropped by 44 per cent over the past 30 months, from 30,976 to 17,435.
Overall, waiting times for general dental treatment had dropped from 30.98 months in December 2004 to 23.51 months at the end of June this year.
“These figures are still too high, but the government’s significant investment means they are well and truly heading in the right direction,” Ms Pike said.