Oral health and access to dental services among Indigenous Australians: research report, March 2000

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Release Date: 01 Mar 2000

AIHW

AIHW, Davies (2000) Oral health and access to dental services among Indigenous Australians: research report, March 2000, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 25 April 2024.

APA

AIHW, Davies. (2000). Oral health and access to dental services among Indigenous Australians: research report, March 2000. Canberra: AIHW.

MLA

AIHW, Davies. Oral health and access to dental services among Indigenous Australians: research report, March 2000. AIHW, 2000.

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AIHW, Davies. Oral health and access to dental services among Indigenous Australians: research report, March 2000. Canberra: AIHW; 2000.

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AIHW, Davies 2000, Oral health and access to dental services among Indigenous Australians: research report, March 2000, AIHW, Canberra.

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Oral health has improved among adults in Australia, with dramatic declines in edentulism. For example, the percentage of persons aged 65 years or more who had no natural teeth declined from 66% in 1979 to 50% in 1987–88 to 40% in 1994. Use of dental services has increased among adults in Australia. For example, among persons aged 65 years or more, the percentage who visited in the previous 12 months increased from 21.5% in 1979 to 40.9% in 1993. However, Indigenous persons comprise a group within the Australian population who may be disadvantaged in terms of their health and access to services.

ISSN: 1323 8744
Cat. no: DEN 64
Pages: 4

Summary

The Australian population

Within the Australian population, Indigenous persons showed disadvantage in comparison to non-Indigenous persons in terms of oral health and access measures. These included:

a higher percentage of Indigenous persons had no natural teeth (16.3%) compared to non-Indigenous persons (10.9%);
a higher percentage of Indigenous persons reported that they usually visit for a problem rather than a check-up (63.7%) compared to non-Indigenous persons (49.7%); and
a higher percentage of Indigenous persons reported that they would have a lot of difficulty in paying a $100 dental bill (33.5%) compared to non-Indigenous persons (14.1%).

Public dental patients

Among health card-holders such as the unemployed and aged pensioners who received public-funded dental treatment, there was evidence of disadvantage by Indigenous status. This included:

a higher percentage of Indigenous patients had gum problems measured as periodontal pockets of 6 mm or more in depth (25.4%) compared to non-Indigenous patients (11.6%);
the average number of decayed teeth was higher among ;Indigenous (3.56) ;compared ;to non-Indigenous patients (1.94); and
a higher percentage of Indigenous patients had teeth extracted during their course of public dental treatment (50.6%) compared to non-Indigenous patients (21.4%).