Introduction

Public dental care in Australia is struggling to avoid being labelled ‘poor dentistry for poor people’. While Australian children enjoy levels of oral health and dental care among the best in the world, Australian adults have comparatively poor oral health and disadvantaged adults have inadequate access to dental care.

This was the situation described by Professor John Spencer in a paper titled ‘What options do we have for organising, providing and funding public dental care’. The paper was commissioned by the Australian Health Policy Institute at the University of Sydney, and presented at the Institute in 2001.

Professor Spencer indicated several broad areas that need action to improve adults’ oral health and dental care in Australia, particularly those eligible for public dental care. The opportunity exists to reconstruct public dental care so that it contributes positively to all Australian adults’ oral health and to the well-being of low income Australian adults through better access to personal dental treatment.

AJ Spencer

ISBN 1 86487 376 0

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What options do we have for organising, providing and funding better public dental care?