Australia - We need to face the rotten truth about our children's teeth

The scheme offering free dental care to children from middle to low income families is under threat. Photo: Domino Postiglione

• $2.7b dental program likely to get the chop, say dentists

My child is nine and she's already had four fillings. Four. She exists in a world where reminders of sugar are blasted at her from every angle: at the supermarket, on television, on billboards and even her Smiggle stationery has macaroons and gumballs on it.

Does Australia care about its children and their teeth? They are rotting, and in the meantime, the federal president of the Australian Dental Association only a few days ago warned that the scheme offering free dental care for children in middle to low income families is under threat and could be axed all together.

But that's okay. Have a candy bar. It'll make you feel great. That's what our children have been led to believe. Dentist Christine Said, from Pacific Smiles in Penrith, said: "Often they have lots of holes and teeth that need pulling out, which makes things worse – and risks creating a fear of the dentist".

Is that surprising? Hardly. But what is surprising is that when the scheme was first introduced it was anticipated that 3 million children would take it up, but only 1 million have. As a result, only $433 million of the $736 million budgeted for the first 18 months from January 2014 has been spent, an Auditor-General's report found.

We are spending less than anticipated yet it might be axed. Odd. A spokesperson said that Health Minister, Sussan Ley, who addressed a group of health and dental groups last week, was merely pointing out that the "well-funded program wasn't meeting its aim," and that "there may be a better way to target funding".

But should that involve stripping this program from families who need it the most? In fact, those are the families that are more likely not to have access to quality food because it is so much more expensive than the fast, processed food which is doused in sugar.

I agree that the low uptake of the program can be attributed to lack of advertising of the scheme. If I didn't schedule six-monthly dentist check-ups for my child, I wouldn't have known about the program. I did receive a letter beforehand, but I found it confusing, and it wasn't until my dentist clarified the program that I understood my child would be bulk-billed.

Is it that difficult to create an advertising campaign on television with a cute cartoon character or some kind of mascot for the dentist, one that takes all the candy bars out of his fridge and throws them in the bin?

Why isn't our government taking drastic action? Our children's teeth are rotting and not enough is being done.

Koraly Dimitriadis is a poet, writer, actor, performer and filmmaker.