Although most children in Australia have good oral health and visit the dentist regularly, many children from poorer families cannot afford dental treatment. (Photo: Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock)

2013-7-5 | News Asia Pacific

CANBERRA, Australia: A report published this week by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found that most children and teenagers in the country reported good oral health in 2010. However, financial barriers continue to affect the dental visiting patterns of children from low-income households in particular.

Although about 70 per cent of children and teenagers had made a dental visit in the previous 12 months, almost 30 per cent had experienced at least one financial barrier or burden associated with dental care, said the institute’s spokesperson Prof. Kaye Roberts-Thomson.

Children from the lowest-income households were most likely to report having fair or poor oral health (11 per cent) and toothache (12 per cent) and to have had a dental check-up in 2010. The report found that poorer children were seven times more likely to have avoided or delayed seeking oral health care and six times more likely to have not received the recommended treatment because their families could not afford the cost of dental care. While over 77 per cent of children from the highest-income households had visited the dentist, only 55 per cent of children from the lowest-income households had done so.

Moreover, the researchers compared oral health data of children living in Australia with data of those living in other countries. Among others, they found that a smaller proportion of Australian children aged 2 to 17 (5.3 per cent) reported poor oral health than their counterparts in New Zealand (12.6 per cent) did. However, only 69 per cent of Australian children had visited the dentist compared with 81 per cent of children from New Zealand. In addition, Australian children aged 6 to 11 (78 per cent) were less likely than their Canadian counterparts (84 per cent) were to have made a dental visit in the previous 12 months. 

The report, titled “Child and teenager oral health and dental visiting: Results from the National Dental Telephone Interview Survey 2010”, was published online on 3 July on the institute’s website.