A new study has looked at the media coverage and the implications for the dentistry, particularly in terms of societal attitudes towards dental health and the dental profession.

The recent trend of dental practices promoting the use of superannuation for dental treatment has become a hot topic issue in the dental profession over the past few years. From $108 million in 2020-21 to $526 million last year, the scale of use in dentistry far exceeds the other areas where superannuation is being withdrawn on compassionate grounds.

Now, a new study Supercharged Smiles: A Discourse Analysis of Australian Media Coverage of Funding Dental Care Through Superannuation published in the Australian Dental Journal has looked at how the media has reported this phenomenon. Professor Alex Holden from the University of Sydney examined 36 media articles written by 25 different authors across 18 media platforms published between 2022 to 2025.

Across all the media articles that were reviewed, there was a predominantly negative discourse which highlights the ethical, social, and professional challenges that early superannuation release presents to dentists, patients and the broader community, as well as policy makers.

At the top level, there were three main themes that emerged from the 36 articles. The first was one of outrage at the necessity that patients were forced to use their retirement savings to pay for essential dental care, the second was about the exploitation of vulnerable patients by some dentists and the final theme was about abuse of the system by patients and dentists for elective and cosmetic dental treatment, when the guidelines are pretty clear about the criteria for use.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I talk about this new study and the narrative that has emerged about this scheme, and the importance of the dental profession in taking an active stand on this issue.

How much did you pay for your dental degree? Were you one of the lucky ones who received a free education? Did you come in during the early days of student fees in the early 1990s when $10,000 was enough to cover the tuition fees for dental school? Or are you a recent graduate or current student at a graduate entry school in a full fee paying place, paying more than $80,000 per year for your dental degree, on top of the twenty odd thousand dollars you paid for your undergraduate degree?

As the cost of a dental degree at some Australian universities passes $400,000, there are clearly implications for potential students, graduates and the broader community.

This week on the Dental As Anything podcast I talk about the burgeoning cost of dental education, and the implications for both graduates and the broader community.

What does the Australian constitution say about the powers of the Commonwealth to provide dental services and what impact might that have on the dental profession in the context of expanding Medicare?

Medicare and dentistry is in the news again now that the new Commonwealth parliament has commenced, with the Greens vowing to use their balance of power in the Senate to pressure the government to add dental care into Medicare.

One of the common concerns from dentists about Medicare funded dentistry is the impact on their earnings and the profitability of their business due to low rebates. It is also invariably linked to the spectre of NHS-style dentistry and the deterioration of clinical outcomes for patients. There are assumptions about the power and reach of the government to control the dental profession if Medicare is expanded to include some dental services.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast, I discuss the history of the amendment to the Australian constitution which gave the Commonwealth the power to legislate for the provision of medical and dental services, and what the civil conscription clause means in the context of options for reform of public dental funding.

Section 51xxiiiA: The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to: the provision of maternity allowances, widows’ pensions, child endowment, unemployment, pharmaceutical, sickness and hospital benefits, medical and dental services (but not so as to authorize any form of civil conscription), benefits to students and family allowances.

Dentistry is a $12 billion a year industry and growing, making it a valuable target for private equity investment. But what are the implications for patients when others seek to profit from healthcare?

A recent article in the Australian Financial Review reported large dental chain Dental Boutique had appointed Morgan Stanley and Gilbert + Tobin to sell their business. It is part of a growing trend both here in Australia and internationally for the consolidation and corporatisation of healthcare businesses, and in particular for private equity funds to buy into healthcare.

But is raises some important questions about whether this is a good thing, and who profits from healthcare?

A recent scoping review on the role of private equity in health found that there were both positive and negative impacts on health outcomes, staffing and costs, but importantly found no evidence of consistently positive effects of private equity in health.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast, I explore the issue of private equity investment in the dental industry, noting trends in dentistry from the USA (where 1 in 8 dentists are now associated with private equity) and trends in the medical profession in Australia.

Trust is essential to the normal function of society, yet it is perhaps not something that we spend a lot of time thinking about until it’s gone.

Long term data on trusted professions shows that dentists rank in the top 5 – behind nurses, doctors, pharmacists and teachers, although trust has been declining since peaking in 2017.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast, we discuss the important issue of trust - what it is, why it’s important and why we are seeing a gradual erosion of trust - in individuals and institutions. Rebuilding trust requires accountability, high standards of honesty and integrity, openness and transparency and most importantly good communication. Ultimately, building and maintaining trust is important for everyone, and therefore is everyone’s responsibility.

In this episode of the Dental as Anything podcast I talk about our new paper Oral Health Meets Commercial Determinants: An Opportunity to Bridge Individual and Structural Approaches published this week in the Australian Dental Journal with colleagues from the University of Sydney and Deakin University.

We highlight the role of structural and commercial factors, operating outside an individual's control, that drive the high prevalence of oral disease and inequities at a population level, and argue that dental practitioners must also consider the broader commercial forces which contribute to oral disease in order to make meaningful steps in reducing inequities in the burden of oral diseases.

New guidelines on cosmetic procedures and a statement on the use of superannuation for dental treatment have again shone the light on ethical conduct and the tension between business and healthcare.

In the past week Ahpra has released two guidelines and a joint statement with the Dental and Medical boards which highlight some ethical challenges facing the dental profession. They come off the back of a series of stories, and no doubt complaints and notifications, regarding cosmetic procedures and the compassionate release of superannuation.

In this episode of the Dental as Anything podcast I talk the new Ahpra guidelines on cosmetic procedures and the implications for dental practitioners, and our role more broadly in upholding ethical standards to maintain trust in the profession.

What do we do when a dental practitioner breaks the trust of patients? Should we discuss that within the profession? What happens when those cases are picked up by the media and talked about in the public sphere? Should we engage in the discussion or try and shut it down.

In this episode of the Dental as Anything podcast I talk about the vexed issue of the early release of superannuation, over-servicing, the role of the media in reporting stories of interest, and how the dental profession should respond.

Health is inherently political . Like any resource or commodity in our neo-liberal economic system, some social groups have more of it than others. We also know that the social and commercial determinants of health – more than just individual behaviours – are amendable to political interventions.

In this episode of the Dental as Anything podcast I talk about the history of expanding Medicare to include more dental services, the broader support and advocacy for schemes such as Senior Dental Benefits Scheme and the important role of research in supporting advocacy efforts.

References:

Australian dental practitioner attitudes to expanding Medicare to include more dental services

World Dental Federation. Universal Health Coverage - Oral Health for All (Fact Sheet)

What is universal health coverage?

We often talk about the pros and cons of water fluoridation through the lens of benefits versus the risk of harm. But it's also important to understand the broader public health ethical considerations.

Last month, Utah became the first state in the USA to ban fluoride in public drinking water and just last week a local mayor in Florida vetoed a county decision to remove fluoride, pushing back a little against a vote that seemed more about politics than health. In Australia we recently saw Cook Shire Council in far north Queensland also vote to cease water fluoridation.

What we are seeing is a distortion of public health ethics – allowing a small number of fellow citizens to impose a disadvantage on the community at large for the sake of protecting their individual autonomy.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast we explore some of the ethical principles that underpin public health measures, moving beyond beneficence and non-maleficence to consider how we balance individual autonomy with the broader public good, and the role of justice.