Davin Michael never imagined putting his name on the state's dental waiting list would mean four years of pain. Three years into his lengthy wait, two of his molars snapped off.
The 34-year-old spent the next year taking painkillers and lathering teething gel on his throbbing gums. He even resorted to swishing whisky in his mouth — a trick he had seen in old movies. When things got really bad he stopped smiling; embarrassed to show his teeth.
"It was one of those pains where you just don't know when it will go away," the Pakenham father says. "It gets to the point where it's driving you nuts."
When, after four years, he learnt he would have a longer wait for help, Mr Michael contacted the Brotherhood of St Laurence, which booked him into a dental hospital and paid $5000 for 10 fillings and two extractions.
As the federal government and Greens negotiate reforms to the way Australians access dental care, about 400,000 Australians remain on public dental waiting lists, some waiting up to five years to access treatment.
"We have basically got to a point where we are looking at Third World conditions in a country like Australia," Consumer Health Forum chief executive Carol Bennett says. "We should have never allowed it to get to this point."
The situation is particularly bad in regional areas. The longest average wait in the state is 38 months at Northeast Health Wangaratta, compared to a state average of 17 months.
Northeast Health Wangaratta chief executive Margaret Bennett says the service's lengthy waiting list reflects the large area it serves. Patients travel from Beechworth, Yarrawonga and Benalla for anything from routine to emergency care.
"We have very dedicated experts working in a very cramped, rented building," she says.
Margaret Bennett hopes a new $900,000 purpose-built dental facility and the May federal budget's $515 million dental package will reduce waiting lists in clinics like hers. But with Australians waiting an average 27months for dental treatment, some advocates are pinning hopes on the Greens' Medicare-style dental care plan.
"It's not just a health issue. It's an issue of social justice," Greens health spokesman Richard Di Natale says.
The senator is in talks with the government about a replacement for the Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme, which he says will create a platform for a universal dental system.
Senator Di Natale says a universal scheme would be implemented over five years and cost about $5 billion per annum.
Victorian Health Minister David Davis warns the federal government against axing the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme on September 30, which he says is worth $680 million to Victoria over the next four years.
While Mr Davis says he would work with the federal government if a universal dental scheme was implemented, he can't imagine that any time soon.
"Given the challenge to the Commonwealth budget and the challenge to the state budgets, a broad, universal scheme would be a challenge," Mr Davis says.
Australian Dental Association Victorian Branch president Matthew Hopcraft believes in a targeted dental scheme, where funding helps the 30 to 35 per cent of the population who struggle to access dental care.
In the meantime, vulnerable Victorians continue to call on charity for help. In the past two years the Brotherhood has helped more than 100 Victorians with dental bills. The Brotherhood's dental program manager Mary Pearce says: "You are holding someone up in their life if they can't get treatment."
"One man was trying to get a job and had impacted wisdom teeth. They had been X-rayed and were getting infected every six weeks. The job network provider said, 'how are we going to get him a job when he has to take time off work every six weeks?"
Mr Hopcraft says the private sector has a "very strong role" to play in reducing waiting lists.
"Our members do a lot of pro bono work and work in different capacities. We are continuing to talk to federal and state governments to make sure the private sector is very involved in this."
Unfortunately, he says, by the time some public patients get to see a dentist their mouths are in a very poor state.
"If people are on a waiting list for two years before they are seen then that small problem becomes a big problem. We know public dental patients are more likely to have extractions than people who aren't on waiting lists."
This certainly holds true for Sandy Jensen, whose teeth had started to fall out and crumble by the time she got to see a dentist.
Unable to afford all the dental work she needed and unaware that she was eligible for public dental assistance, the mother-of-two says she had no choice but to let her teeth rot.
"I couldn't eat food properly. I was always in a lot of pain and I was always on antibiotics," she says.
For eight years her diet consisted of soup, custard and pureed meals and she says her two boys were embarassed to walk down the street with her.
An employment agency told Ms Jensen that finding work would be difficult because "the public don't want to be served by someone who doesn't have teeth."
She was eventually referred to the Brotherhood, who helped her with the $500 co-payment for dentures.
Ms Jensen says her life is now back on track — she works part-time as a cleaner and has applied to retrain in animal studies.
"My son was so excited when I was finally getting my teeth," she says. "He threw a little party. We had party pies, something I could eat for a change."
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/dental-care-leaves-a-bad-taste-in-many-mouths-20120615-20f6k.html#ixzz1xthrMV2Z
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