If you are an Australian dental practitioner, a research team led by A/Prof Matt Hopcraft from the University of Melbourne is interested in hearing from you about access to dental care.
Many Australians experience challenges accessing dental care, and dental treatment has one of the highest out-of-pocket costs across healthcare.
When Medibank (the precursor to Medicare) was first proposed in the 1970s, it was envisaged that it would include the provision of dental services. However strong opposition from the dental profession meant that dentistry was left out. As a result, public dental services for financially vulnerable population groups evolved at the state/territory level.
A lack of prioritisation and resourcing now means that many services have long waiting lists up to two years, and care is rationed such that there is limited focus on regular preventive care and there is a strong emphasis on emergency treatment.
A recent Senate Select Committee into the Provision of and Access to Dental Services in Australia recommended the expansion of Medicare to include more dental services. However, little is known about the views of dental practitioners, including the acceptability, likely participation and associated benefits and risks of any potential new scheme.
The aim of this project is to investigate Australian dental practitioner attitudes to expanding Medicare to include more dental services.
The study involves a short (15min) questionnaire that should take only 10-15 minutes to complete.
Following the questionnaire, participants can opt to also participate in an online interview with the researchers to further explore relevant issues.
