More than a million children are missing out on free dental work due to misinformation, according to the Australian Dental Association.
Of the 2,595,862 children eligible for the government’s Child Dental Benefits Schedule (CDBS) in 2020-2021, just 1,003,838 children used its services.
“This leaves millions of eligible Australian families either going without dental care or paying more out of pocket than they need to, when it could so well fund a child’s first dental visit,” ADA president Dr Chris Sanzaro said.
“It’s a scheme that’s shrouded in mystery and confusion – and with over 1.5m Australian kids missing out, the government urgently needs to better promote it to ensure eligible families can access this care.”
For eligible families – typically those in receipt of Family Tax Benefit A – the CDBS provides up to $1,132 over a two-year period for dental services such as examinations, x-rays, cleaning, fissure sealing, fillings, root canals, and extractions for children aged from newborn to 17.
An ADA survey of 25,000 adults found that many were under the incorrect impression that the CDBS did not cover restorative or cosmetic dental care.
The survey found other reasons for not using the scheme included it not being well publicized or easily understood.
Many were unaware that the CDBS could be accessed through a private dentist, assuming it would only be available through the public dental system.
About 20 to 25 percent said they believed their child/children were eligible but were waiting for confirmation from Services Australia.
“These results point to a catalogue of confusion, misinformation, and lack of clarity around what’s in reality a good scheme that could potentially be meeting the oral health needs of nearly 2.6 million kids a year,” Dr Sanzaro said.
“We’re keen to work with the government to help clarify the basic elements of the scheme and promote it to patients and parents to ensure millions of kids are getting the dental treatment and care they need to set them up with healthy mouths early in life.”
