Oral health and dental care in Australia

Data presented within this section shows the number of procedures performed in both public and private Australian hospitals classified under ACHI Chapter 06 Dental services. Users can view the number of procedures in more detail by working down from the broad chapter level to more specific categories as illustrated below.

• ACHI Chapter – 06 Dental services
  • ACHI Sub-Chapter – 0450-0490
    • ACHI Block number – Blocks 0450-0490

The procedures data is further disaggregated by age and sex of the patient.

In 2023–24:

• over half (56%) of dental procedures performed in hospital were for children aged 0–14 years
• the number of procedures was higher for males in this age group (137,000) compared to females in this age group (125,000). Explore the data further in Hospitalisations interactive 1.

In 2023–24:

• children aged 0–14 years were more likely to receive a restorative dental procedure than any other type of dental procedure.
• Around 107,000 restorative dental procedures were performed on children aged 0-14 years, with males receiving around 57,000 procedures and females receiving around 50,000 procedures. Adults aged 15–24 years were more likely to receive oral surgery than any other type of dental procedure.
• Around 72,000 oral surgery procedures were performed on adults aged 15–24 years, with males receiving around 31,000 procedures and females receiving around 41,000 procedures. Explore the data further in Hospitalisations interactive 2.

In 2023–24:

• The second most common dental procedure performed was for tooth-coloured restoration, with around 78,000 procedures performed.
• More surgical removal of tooth procedures were performed on those aged 15–24 years than any other age-group, around 66,000 procedures.
• More tooth-coloured restoration procedures were performed on children aged 0-14 years than any other age group, around 63,000 procedures.

Explore the data further in Hospitalisations interactive 3.