The Australian Dental Association (ADA) has sounded the alarm about the oral health of Aussie seniors ahead of tomorrow’s Federal Election.
According to the Australian Oral Health Survey, the state of dental health in older Australians is dire:
- 32% of those aged 55-74 years and 25% of those aged 75+ years have untreated tooth decay
- 51% of those aged 55-74 years and 69% of those aged 75+ years have gum disease
- where the gum disease wasn’t treated, it resulted in complete tooth loss for 20% of those aged 75+ years
- 22% of those aged 55-74 years and 46% of those aged 75+ years have an inadequate dentition (fewer than 21 teeth)
ADA Vice President Dr Stephen Liew has warned that poor oral health can lead to a decline in general health, as well as malnutrition and social isolation.
“What this data shows is that many older Australians don’t have the oral health they should have, and if they’re one of the nation’s 190,000 aged care residents, the lack of oral care in residential homes is a key factor,” he said.
The ADA has put a wish list on oral health to the main political parties, including direct access to public and private dental services in aged care facilities; clinical indicators for oral health in the Aged Care Quality Standards; oral health units being added to the Certificate III in Aged Care; and oral assessments in GPs’ over-75s health checks.
Unfortunately, says Dr Liew, the response has been mixed: the ADA has received “deafening silence” from the Coalition; Labor has not agreed to the specifics of the plan, but has pledged to work with the ADA if elected; and the Greens have put forward a $77 billion plan to add dental to Medicare, which the ADA applauds but says is too expensive for the major parties.
“Politicians who make decisions about oral health today will be old themselves in the not-too-distant future too.
“If they ignore our remedy for fixing oral health in aged care, one day they’ll wish they’d introduced schemes that looked after the oral health of the aged better,” he said.
A good reminder for our pollies – not to mention timely.
