Cost of dental care

People who can't afford a dentist

Overall, the proportion of people who avoided or delayed visiting a dentist due to cost in 2010 was 28.2%. This ranged from 13.9% for children aged 5–14 to 37.0% for adults aged 25–44.

Those in lower household income groups were more likely to delay visiting a dentist due to cost than those in the highest household income groups. Across all income groups, those aged 25–44 and 45–64 were more likely to avoid or delay seeing a dentist due to cost (24.5% and 24.2%, respectively). This pattern was most prevalent in the lower income groups.

A higher proportion of adults aged 18–24 (24.9%) indicated they would have a lot of difficulty paying a $150 dental bill than all other adults. The higher a person’s household income, the less difficulty they would have in paying a bill. Over one-third of adults (between 33.7% and 45.1%) with a household income of less than $40,000 per year expressed a lot of difficulty, compared with only 6.9% of adults in the $100,000 and over income bracket.

Dental insurance

About 1/2

of Australians aged 5 and older had some private dental cover

In 2010, over half (53.8%) of all people reported having some level of dental insurance. Adults aged 45–64 had significantly higher rates of dental insurance, and those aged 65 and over had significantly lower rates of insurance than other age groups.

In the same year, the majority of adults with health insurance reported that their insurance paid some (78.7%) or all (7.8%) of the dental costs of their last visit. Only 9.4% of insured adults paid all their own dental expenses.

Adults with some natural teeth were more likely to have dental insurance if they lived in Major cities than Inner regional or Outer regional areas.

Over three-quarters (76.3%) of adults with some natural teeth who were in the highest household income group had some level of dental insurance, compared to less than one-third of adults in the bottom three household income groups (ranging from 27.3% to 29.8%).

Almost one-fifth (17.3%) of insured adults who were required to cover their own dental expenses said it caused a large financial burden.

How much is spent on dentists?

Total expenditure on dental services in Australia was $5,375 million in 2005–06, increasing to $7,690 million in 2009–10.

Recurrent expenditure on dental services from all sources of funds increased every year from 2005–06 to 2009–10, except state and local government which decreased by $12 million from 2008–09 to 2009–10.

In 2009–10 individuals were the largest source of funds for total dental expenditure, paying directly out-of-pocket for 61.1% of total dental costs. Health insurance funds provided a further 14.0%. Australian government premium rebates accounted for 6.4%, and other government contributions funded 18.1% of total expenditure (9.9% Australian government direct outlay and 8.2% from state and local governments).

Who works in the dental workforce?

Dental workforce

There were about 50 dentists, 6 dental therapists, 3 dental hygienists, 2 oral health therapists and 4 dental prosthetists per 100,000 people.

In 2006, the number of practicing dental practitioners per 100,000 people was 50.3 dentists, 5.7 dental therapists, 3.3 dental hygienists, 1.8 oral health therapists and 4.4 dental prosthetists.

Across jurisdictions, the number of dentists per 100,000 people ranged from 35.1 in Tasmania to 65.4 in the Australian Capital Territory. The number of dental therapists per 100,000 people ranged from 3.3 in New South Wales to 13.9 in Western Australia.

Female dentists accounted for 29% of practising dentists and 44.2% of dentists working solely in the public sector. They were younger than their male colleagues (average age 38.9 compared to 47.6), worked less hours per week (34.1 compared to 40.2), and were more likely to work part-time (42.4% compared to 21.0%).

More than four in five specialists (82.2%) were male.

Across remoteness areas, Major cities had the highest number per 100,000 people of practising dentists (59.5), dental hygienists (4.1) and oral health therapists (2.0). Remote/Very remote regions had the lowest rates of all practitioners.

Further information