Snippets from Looking Back Looking Forward: Oral health in Victoria and Australia 1970 to 2022 and beyond, will be featured in this and subsequent newsletters.
- Waiting times for general public dental care have not changed substantially for the last quarter of a century. They were 21 months then (25 for dentures) and this is similar to the five-year average now.
- The total number of practitioners in the public system grew by 12% between 2009 and 2020. This was almost entirely more oral health therapists. However the current total number is 14% lower than the 2014 peak.
- There have been significant improvements in the oral health of Victorians generally over the last 50 years. However inequality has increased: the tooth decay gap between health care card holders and non-card holders rose from three to six teeth in the 12 years to 2018.
Victorian Oral Health Alliance 