While Dental cost in Australia remains very high, more than 26% of adults have dental decay, 23% have severe gum diseases, 15% have toothache, which make the search for cheaper alternatives a priority for most of the population.

1. AFFORDABILITY OF DENTAL CARE IN AUSTRALIA – A
COMPARATIVE STUDY
Dental problems are quite prevalent among the Australian population which is evident from the
statistics conducted in 2011 by the Australian institute of Health and welfare (AIHW) that states:
26% of adults have dental decay, 23% of the population with severe gum diseases, 15% with
frequent toothache
Total Dental workforce in Australia
Australia has a total of 11,551 practicing dentists as recorded in 2010 out of which about 83%
work in the private sector. This is one of the main reasons that the dental health cost is
alarmingly very high in Australia. The AIHW statistics also reveals the total dental workforce:
For 100,000 people, there are only about 50 dental therapists, 3 dental hygienists, 2 oral health
therapists and 4 dental prosthetists. The oral hygiene workforce can be divided into general
dentists and specialists. Given below is a list of the total number of specialists:
Specialty Total
Orthodontics 533
Periodontics 153
Prosthodontics 171
Oral pathology 11
Oral and maxillofacial surgery 212
Endodontics 121
Pediatric dentistry 103
Dento maxillofacial radiology 8
Other speciality 73
Total 1386
It is evident that only 1386 dentists are specialists whilst the remaining 10165 are general
dentists. Since the number of specialists is quite low, the cost of special treatments is high and
unaffordable by many.
Cost Analysis
Though Australians have the best dental facilities, people tend to move off to some other
countries owing to the high costs for each treatment which is already given in the previous
section. The most visited countries for this purpose are India, Malaysia, Philippines & Thailand.
The average cost incurred for some of the dental treatments in Australia, Thailand and Malaysia
are given below:

2. Dental treatments Australia Thailand Malaysia
Consultation $59.32 $35.75 $28.62
Fissure sealing –per
tooth
$50.19 $30.56 $24.14
Removal of tooth or
parts
$149.58 $71.51 $109.48
Full crown $1397.98 $643.55 $379.38
Adhesive restoration $150.8 $71.35 $51.73
Implant $6000 $2860 $1724.48
Crown- veneered $1391.56 $536 $689.70
It is clear enough that the various dental treatments in Australia are provided at a very high rate.
It becomes impossible for people to avail these treatments and this becomes the reason for lack
of proper oral treatment in Australia.
Effect of Income on Dental Treatments
It has been observed that owing to the high dental costs, people in Australia avoid visiting a
dentist. Below given is a statistics recorded in National Dental Telephone Interview Survey by
AIHW in the year 2010.
Annual house hold income ($) Percentage of persons avoiding
dental checkup
<12,000 40.4
12000-<20000 39.0
20000-<30000 39.4
30000-<40000 36.6
40000-<60000 37.0
60000-<80000 34.0
80000-<100000 24.8
100000+ 17.2
This table clearly shows that income is one of the major reasons that affect a person’s visit to a
dentist. A person with low income tends to avoid making a dental checkup frequently owing to
the high costs of dental treatments.

3. From all the above information, we can thus conclude that the dental costs in Australia are
comparatively very high. The treatments provided in other countries are better with affordable
costs. So it is recommended that people could look for dental hospitals in the above stated
countries but after a detailed research about the particular dental specialists.
For more details visit : http://www.dentistscost.com.au