Oral health and dental care in Australia

The Commonwealth government subsidises the cost of prescription medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and the Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS) for eligible war veterans and their dependants. Medicines available under the PBS/RPBS and conditions of prescribing are listed in the Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits.

Most of the listed medicines are prescribed by doctors, but other health professionals such as dentists are also eligible to prescribe. Dentists are not able to prescribe general PBS items but have a separate Dental Schedule from which they can prescribe dental care medicines for their patients (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing 2022a). 

The following PBS/RPBS data relate to dental prescriptions, categorised by the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System as listed in the PBS Schedule.

It is important to highlight that some medications (such as codeine with paracetamol and ibuprofen) were also available over the counter between 2013 and 2017. Therefore, data for these medicines will be incomplete as over the counter sales are not captured in the PBS/RPBS data. Also, people may be prescribed medications for dental conditions by other health professionals (for example, GPs) that are not captured under the Dental Schedule.

Number of dental prescriptions dispensed

• Around 1.2 million dental prescriptions were dispensed in 2024.
• The number of dental prescriptions dispensed in Australia each year remains relatively stable, ranging from a low of about 1.0 million in 2017, to a high of about 1.2 million in 2024.

Explore the data using the Prescribing interactive 1 below.

Most commonly dispensed dental prescriptions

• Amoxycillin, an antibacterial for systemic use, was the most commonly dispensed medicine during the period 2013–2024, accounting for around half of all dental items dispensed each year.
• Amoxycillin was dispensed just over 574,000 times in Australia in 2024.
• The second most commonly dispensed medicine during the period 2013–2024 was codeine with paracetamol, an analgesic, accounting for around one-fifth of dental items dispensed in 2024.
• Codeine with paracetamol was dispensed around 232,000 times in Australia in 2024.

Explore the data using the Prescribing interactive 2 below.

Between 2013 and 2024, the number of dental prescriptions dispensed has:

• more than doubled for amoxycillin with clavulanic acid, an antibacterial for systemic use, from around 74,500 in 2013 to around 183,000 in 2024
• steadily decreased for erythromycin, an antibacterial for systemic use, from around 15,600 in 2013 to around 3,200 in 2024
• steadily increased for diazepam, a psycholeptic, from around 7,100 in 2013 to 15,700 in 2024.

Explore the data using the Prescribing interactive 3 below.

Characteristics of patients dispensed dental prescriptions

In 2024, the number of dental prescriptions dispensed to patients was:

• highest for those aged 45–64 years (around 406,000 or 33%)
• lowest for those aged 0–4 years (around 3,100 or 0.3%).

PBS patients fall into two broad categories: general and concessional. Concessional patients include Pensioner Concession Card holders, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders, Health Care Card holders and DVA Pension Card holders. General patients do not hold any of the aforementioned cards. RPBS (or repatriation) patients hold DVA White, Gold or Orange Cards (Department of Health 2022b).

• In 2024, around 421,000 (34%) dental prescriptions were dispensed to concessional patients and around 792,000 (65%) dental prescriptions were dispensed to general patients.

Explore the data using the Prescribing interactive 4 below.

Prescribing interactive 4: Characteristics of patients dispensed dental prescriptions