Most of us have had a toothache. It is bloody painful and at times I’ve fantasised taking a pair of pliers and ripping the agonising tooth out while I wait for attention from a dentist to help me – please just help me with the pain!
Looking after your teeth is an important part of health care and apart from ensuring your teeth aren’t black, rotting, and falling out of your mouth, good dental care has good health outcomes.
Apart from stopping tooth decay and helping you feel less inclined towards pliers, a key part of good dental care is reducing and preventing gum disease. The reason this is important is that gum disease (and lacking access to a dentist) can place you at risk of a number of health risks.
According to Harvard Medical School repeated studies have shown that ‘people who have poor oral health (such as gum disease or tooth loss) have higher rates of cardiovascular problems such as heart attack or stroke than people with good oral health (www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/gum-disease-and-the-connection-to-heart-disease).
Similarly there is a clear link between gum disease and diabetes, with people with diabetes three times more likely to have gum disease, have an increased risk of raised blood sugar levels, while diabetes lowering the body’s ability to fight infections, and slows down healing in the mouth.
This is all before you get to the impacts of confidence and appearance.
So I was happy to see the Australian Dental Association (ADA) calling for more national action on oral health.
‘For too long, dental has sat outside the national health reform conversation, even though it’s one of the most common reasons people avoid care because of cost. The establishment of this National Oral Health and Dental Reform Senior Officials Group shows government is finally treating dental as the national priority it should be, and the ADA will be at the table making sure the plan delivers real change,’ said Dr Chris Sanzaro, ADA President.
While it is important that the calls for government to fund targeted dental care for vulnerable groups, I think they need to be bolder.
Countries like Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway provide heavily subsidised public dental care and even the UK provides free dental care if you are under 18, pregnant, or had a baby in the last 12 months, and other subsidised health care is available on the National Health Service (NHS). Mind you visiting the doctor is also free in the UK!
It is time to call for free dental care in Australia. Victoria’s Labor government has committed to spend $230m to open ten public dental clinics across the state, where oral care clinicians would be able to provide free checkups and treatments, including fillings, root canals and extractions, if reelcted according to The Guardian.
If anything in Australia is going to be free, let’s make it education and health, including looking after our damn teeth!
Aslan Shand, editor
News tips are welcome: [email protected]
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
