New report: Australian economy loses over $1.3 billion per year due to poor dental health
The Brotherhood of St Laurence claims the Australian economy loses over $1.3 billion each year as a result of poor dental health.
The Catholic welfare organisation has reported that millions of Australians are ‘locked out’ of the dental health care system because of the high dentist fees resulting in over 1 million lost work days and 600,000 lost school days for students.
The report, “End the Decay: The cost of poor dental health and what should be done about it”, undertaken by Professor Jeff Richardson from Monash University and Bronwyn Richardson from Campbell Research and Consulting, found that the direct and indirect costs to the economy are significant.
Among the report’s findings are:
• The direct and indirect costs to the economy of poor dental health are between $1.3 billion and $2 billion annually.
• Hospital admissions from dental conditions are the largest category of preventable acute hospital admissions, costing the health system $223 million each year.
• At least 1 million work days and at least 600,000 school days are lost each year because of poor dental health costing the economy at least $660 million in lost productivity.
• Children in the lowest socioeconomic areas had 70% more decay in their teeth than children in the highest socioeconomic areas.
• Adults on the lowest incomes were almost 60 times more likely to have no teeth than those on the highest incomes. While the prevalence of people without teeth has fall to almost zero (0.3%) in the top 25% of incomes, 17.3% of adults in the lowest 25% of incomes had no natural teeth.
• Indigenous people were twice as likely to have untreated decay in comparison to non-indigenous people.
• Nearly a quarter of adults report feeling self conscious or embarrassed because of oral health problems.
Mr Tony Nicholson, the Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St Laurence, said that the costs of poor dental health were being borne by those least able to afford them......
Fluoridated Australia - why do they put it in the water when we know it causes fluorosis and it seems to have little affect on dental decay?
The Catholic welfare organisation has reported that millions of Australians are ‘locked out’ of the dental health care system because of the high dentist fees resulting in over 1 million lost work days and 600,000 lost school days for students.
The report, “End the Decay: The cost of poor dental health and what should be done about it”, undertaken by Professor Jeff Richardson from Monash University and Bronwyn Richardson from Campbell Research and Consulting, found that the direct and indirect costs to the economy are significant.
Among the report’s findings are:
• The direct and indirect costs to the economy of poor dental health are between $1.3 billion and $2 billion annually.
• Hospital admissions from dental conditions are the largest category of preventable acute hospital admissions, costing the health system $223 million each year.
• At least 1 million work days and at least 600,000 school days are lost each year because of poor dental health costing the economy at least $660 million in lost productivity.
• Children in the lowest socioeconomic areas had 70% more decay in their teeth than children in the highest socioeconomic areas.
• Adults on the lowest incomes were almost 60 times more likely to have no teeth than those on the highest incomes. While the prevalence of people without teeth has fall to almost zero (0.3%) in the top 25% of incomes, 17.3% of adults in the lowest 25% of incomes had no natural teeth.
• Indigenous people were twice as likely to have untreated decay in comparison to non-indigenous people.
• Nearly a quarter of adults report feeling self conscious or embarrassed because of oral health problems.
Mr Tony Nicholson, the Executive Director of the Brotherhood of St Laurence, said that the costs of poor dental health were being borne by those least able to afford them......
Fluoridated Australia - why do they put it in the water when we know it causes fluorosis and it seems to have little affect on dental decay?
posted by Bill at
10:15 AM
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