Report on a Community Consultation Workshop on Oral Health and Dental Care

Abstract

The release of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission's final report on health reform in Australia1 included recommendations to the Commonwealth Government on changes to oral health policy to improve the oral health of the Australian population. These recommendations centred around four main strategies. The first was the proposal for a scheme of social insurance to finance dental care (Denticare). Linked to the Denticare proposal was the second recommendation, for an internship program for dental graduates, which would see them participate in a twelve-month structured program of professional development and service. The third recommendation was that there should be a national expansion of the pre-school and school dental programs and the fourth that additional funding be made available for improved oral health promotion, with interventions to be decided based upon relative cost-effectiveness assessment. The release of this report has ignited a sometimes fierce debate about the problems of oral health in Australia and the preferred directions for policy to improve access to dental care. This debate is largely dominated by professional interests, with few opportunities for ordinary citizens' voices to be heard. In November 2009, the Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health (ARCPOH) invited members of the community who had participated in the 2007-08 National Dental Telephone Interview Survey to participate in a one-day consultation workshop on oral health. Invitees were randomly selected from the list of interviewees from Adelaide and surrounds in South Australia across all adult age groups, and to ensure that there was a mix of urban and non-urban dwellers. The Workshop was held at the National Wine Centre on a Saturday in November 2009 and participants were paid an honorarium and reimbursed for travel costs incurred to attend the Workshop. The date was selected to avoid a clash with any other major events that might have affected people's decision to participate. The purpose of this workshop was to provide an opportunity for the voices of a sample of Australians to be heard on current proposals for oral health reform.