Area of spending
The areas of spending in disease expenditure analysis include:
- hospital services: $87.9 billion (public and private admitted patient services, public hospital emergency departments and public hospital outpatient clinics)
- primary health care services: $39.7 billion (general practitioner services, allied health services, pharmaceuticals and dental)
- referred medical services: $12.8 billion (include specialist services, medical imaging and pathology (AIHW 2022).
In 2019-20, total dental expenditure was $9.5 billion, 6.8% of the total $140 billion allocated disease expenditure (AIHW 2022).
Explore the data further in Disease expenditure table 1:
Key terms
- Dental caries: A disease process that can lead to cavities (small holes) in the tooth structure that compromise both the structure and the health of the tooth, commonly known as tooth decay.
- Periodontal disease: Inflammation of the gums and other tissues that attach to and anchor teeth to the jaws, caused by a bacterial infection
Disease expenditure
Dental disease expenditure data presented in this section are derived from the AIHW Health Expenditure Database. Expenditure is estimated by Australian Burden of Disease Study (ABDS) condition, age group and sex for:
- Public hospital admitted patients
- Public hospital emergency departments
- Public hospital outpatients
- Private hospital services
- Primary health care (general practitioners services, allied health and other services, pharmaceutical benefits scheme and dental expenditure)
- Referred medical service (specialist services, pathology and medical imaging).
All sources of funding, including patient co-payments, are included in expenditure estimates. Dental expenditure is not currently able to be reported by age and sex, except when provided through the MBS or as part of a public or private hospital admission (AIHW 2022).
The total expenditure on oral disorders was $7.8 billion in 2019-20, accounting for 5.54% of spending in all areas of expenditure (hospitals, primary health care, referred medical services).
In 2019-20:
- Dental expenditure, within the primary health care broad area of expenditure, accounts for most of the spending on oral disorders, $7.0 billion.
- Oral disorders spent in areas other than dental expenditure ($0.8 billion) expenditure was highest for age groups 15-19 years ($80.2 million), 20-24 years ($76.7 million) and 5-9 years ($55.3 million).
- Expenditure was $4.5 billion for dental caries, $2.5 billion for other oral disorders, and $756 million for periodontal disease
- Dental caries ($4.5 billion) had the second highest expenditure among ABDS-listed conditions (excluding all ‘other’ conditions within groups) behind falls ($4.7 billion)
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