A Dubbo dentist said she was “shocked” and “surprised” by some of the findings from a recent oral health report.
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Dr Grace Amey from Wingewarra Dental said she, among other oral health practitioners, had been sent the Australian Dental Association’s Oral Health Tracker, which shines a spotlight on the current national oral health status.
‘The Tracker’ found that only 51 per cent of adults aged 18 years and over brush their teeth twice a day and that 55.5 per cent have had a dental check-up in the last 12 months.
“It was quite surprising to find that people are only brushing their teeth once a day, if at all,” Dr Amey said.
The data also found that 47.8 per cent of adults aged 19 years were consuming too much sugar.
Only 68.5 per cent of children aged 5 to 14 years brush their teeth twice a daily with fluoridated toothpaste.
The data found that the same age group of children who have experienced decay in primary teeth was 34.4 per cent.
Dr Amey said education from an early age was important.
The Tracker found 78.4 per cent of young people aged 12-17 have had a dental check-up in the last 12 months and that 55.8 per cent of children aged 5-6 years had visited a dentist before age 5.
Dr Amey said she supports parents and carers taking their children in to their first dentist visit by age two or three, to not only check if there were any oral issues, but to start their dentist experience on a positive note.
“We do see when a child’s first visit to the dentist aged 6 onward can be a problem,” she said.
“Parents may not have known when to bring them in.. and then the child has a dentist phobia.
“It’s very confronting at any age for someone to put their fingers and tools in your mouth, so going to the dentist at an early age is important.”
The Tracker found there was 9.3 per 1000 potentially preventable hospitalisations due to dental conditions in children aged 5 to 9.
“I was shocked at the amount of hospitalisations for tooth related problems,” she said.
“And just how many people get in situations where they have to go to hospital.. because things such as tooth decay is avoidable all with a regular checkup. It’s very upsetting to see.
“Which just adds to the fear of going to the dentist.”
Dr Amey said in Dubbo she sees a diverse range of patients.
“We do see those people that come in every 6 months or 12 months for a checkup. And when you see them you think it’s wonderful,” she said.
“But on the flip side you do see children that have never been to the dentist before and they have oral health problems.”
Dr Amey said her goal everyday going into work was to stop dental disease.
And to encourage people to be reoccurring patients.
“So when someone comes in, who may have been off the radar for a while, I encourage them to re-book to see the dentists,” she said.
While many of the Oral Health Tracker 2025 targets was achievable, Dr Amey said we can’t expect 100 per cent results and need to be realistic.
“We need a lot of education… but it’s positive that the Tracker will be released every few years so it’ll hopefully be in the back of people’s minds,” she said.