New oral health program to target SA’s most remote areas
One of the state’s most remote regions is set to benefit from a new half-million-dollar oral health program from a leading SA-based charity.
The Australian Dental Foundation (ADFi) has announced that its new Central Smiles Project will travel to Ceduna and the Eyre Peninsula to address health accessibility in the community.
Funded by the Straumann Group Foundation, the world’s largest dental health charity, the $510,000 project will deliver preventative care, dental examinations, restorative treatments, extractions and referrals in conjunction with local health services and Indigenous health organisations.
The project is overseen by qualified dentists, oral health therapists, hygienists and dental prosthetists, and will be available to residents from November for free.
ADFi chairman Dr Greg Miller said it was “very important” for the program and the foundation to “go where the need is greatest.”
“If you imagine that there’s a very small percentage of Indigenous patients who are unfortunately in these really remote communities are regularly toothbrushing with fluorinated toothpaste,” he said.
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“It means that the burden of disease is far greater, and hence their need for dental treatment is far greater.
“This is an area where there is real tangible need.”
Ceduna is one of the most remote communities in the country, located more than 400 kilometres away from Port Lincoln and more than 700 kilometres away from Adelaide.
“We know that there are going to be more children and more adults that have need, and hence our mobile dental practice is ideal for reaching these communities, which can’t come very easily to the dentist otherwise,” Miller said.
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An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report found that potentially preventable hospitalisations due to dental conditions were significantly higher for those in very remote areas compared to those in major cities.
It also found that Indigenous people were 1.87 times more likely to be hospitalised with potentially preventable dental issues than other Australians, with nearly 50 per cent of Indigenous people having lost at least one tooth in their lives.
Miller said that the project was “ideal” for reaching remote communities that did not live near fixed clinics.
“By bringing the purpose-built dental vehicle to them, that then enables provision of dentistry, and essentially all of the treatments that can be done in a regular fixed clinic can be done in that mobile dental vehicle,” he said.
“[We] can step into areas where potentially it’s difficult for government to get involved, potentially it’s not viable for private practice to be involved and really provide a solution to what is a wicked health problem and get really great outcomes.”
It comes after ADFi won the SA Business Chamber’s Social Impact Business of the Year Award on Friday night.
Census data shows that more than a quarter of Ceduna residents identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, while median household income is below state and national figures.
“It is really, really great to see overseas recognition and really significant support from completely on the other side of the world, and they [the Straumann Foundation] can fund any program anywhere, and they have chosen this program,” Miller said.
“We are very proud of that.”
The project aims to treat more than 1000 Indigenous patients across 2400 patient appointments within its first year and will launch in November.
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