Dental As Anything

In last week’s episode of the Dental As Anything podcast, Dr Arosha Weerakoon and I debated some of the many concerns that dental practitioners, and in particular private practice owners, have about plans to expand Medicare to include more dental services.

This week, in Part 2 of the Medicare Dental Debate, we try to find some common ground in a path forward. We talk about some of the recommendations of the Senate Select Committee in Dental Services, alternate plans such as a proposal for tax deductibility for dental treatment and the Australian Dental Association’s Australian Dental Health Plan.

Regardless of your position on Medicare and dentistry, it is clear that advocacy from various parties will continue. We have seen in Victoria an election announcement to provide free care and the updated federal ALP policy position to create a road map towards universal access to dental services. The soon to be released National Oral Health Plan will also likely push for measures to improve access to dental care.

Therefore, it is critically important for practitioners to understand various options that are on the table, be informed and let their representative bodies know what they are thinking and concerned about.

In this second episode of the Dental As Anything podcast, I again hand the hosting duties to Dr Arosha Weerakoon, andjump in the hot seat to debate issues around access to dental care and possible options for a path forward. Arosha is a private practice owner and an academic at the University of Queensland, whose Master’s research looked at the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme.

Many dentists see Medicare as threat to clinical standards and practice viability. Others recognise a need to improve access for underserved populations. Is there a solution in there somewhere?Many dentists see Medicare as threat to clinical standards and practice viability. Others recognise a need to improve access for underserved populations. Is there a solution in there somewhere?

I have a strong belief in the principle of universal health care. Access to good quality health care should not be dependent on your postcode or income. For that reason, Australia’s Medicare system - despite its flaws - is recognised as one of the better health systems in the world.

It goes without saying that the mouth is a part of the body, and dental diseases have wide ranging impacts on overall health and wellbeing. So a health care system that treats periodontal disease differently from cardiovascular disease or diabetes or inherently contradictory. But these views aren’t shared across the dental profession, which is why advocacy to improve access to dental care is very much a contested landscape.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast, I hand the hosting duties to Dr Arosha Weerakoon, and I jump in the hot seat to debate issues around access to dental care, and the concerns that many practitioners have about moves towards universal dental care.

Arosha is a private practice owner and an academic at the University of Queensland, whose Master’s research looked at the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme.

A few weeks ago I wrote about concerns with outsourcing thinking to artificial intelligences and the impact on skill development and critical thinking. Alongside the ongoing issues of hallucinations, a couple of recent stories have highlighted further risks, including an AI agent going rogue by turning a gym booking exercise into a cyberattack, and the way that a fake disease created by scientists was incorporated into large language models and then promoted as being real.

The article generated a mixed response amongst readers, and one challenged me on aspects of the piece, arguing that AI tools used correctly had the potential to remove repetitive tasks, make more space for high value experiences or meaningful projects. Given the rapidly evolving and changing space, we decided to get together for a chat. 

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast, I speak to Dr Arosha Weerakoon about the use of artificial intelligence in dental education, research and practice. Arosha is Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator at the University of Queensland School of Dentistry. She has maintained a private dental practice for the last 21 years and is the principal and owner of Tewantin Family Dental.

New dental workforce modelling projects another oversupply. But we have heard that before.

The Department of Health has just released new dental workforce modelling that projects out to 2038, highlighting what they say is a stark maldistribution with an apparent surplus of dentists overall (particularly in the private sector) alongside persistent and growing shortages in the public sector.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast, I unpack this new report to try and understand what it really means.

Read the report here: Dental Practitioner Supply and Demand Compendium Report 2026

Seemingly neutral prerequisite subjects and admissions settings systematically disadvantage rural and low socioeconomic status students - a question of fairness that has workforce implications.

Have you ever thought about how you were selected into dental school, and whether that process was the best way to select future dentists? Or perhaps more importantly, how that selection process shapes the profession and ultimately plays a role in either improving health outcomes or exacerbating inequities in access to care.

Some interesting new evidence looks at how selection criteria for medical school might perpetuate disadvantage, particularly for students from rural areas and lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I look at some of the evidence that underpins student selection, and talk about ways in which this might contribute to the maldistribution of the dental workforce, particularly from a geographic perspective. Could this then be one of the levers that might help improve access to care in underserved communities? Somecontentious food for thought.

In a country gripped by an affordability crisis, what are we doing to ensure that all Australians can access the dental care that they need?

Recent news stories have shone a light on dental affordability, with many Australians flocking overseas for major dental treatment. For many Australians, dental care has quietly become a luxury — not a routine service but a decision weighed against rent, food, fuel and other essentials.

They avoid the dentist not mainly because they fear the drill — although dental anxiety does play a role — but because the system forces them to choose between essential living costs and essential health care. That’s not choice, that’s constraint. As cost-of-living pressures grow and health inequalities widen, ignoring dental care isn’t a cost-saving strategy; it’s a ticking public health time-bomb.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I talk about our two tiered system that has split Australians into those who can afford routine visits and preventive care to maintain their oral health, and those who are trapped in a cycle of pain, delayed care and costly treatment as a consequence.It’s time we recognised dental health not as a discretionary service but as an integral part of health care worthy of protection, funding, and equality.

As a profession we must grapple these issues if we want to build future where all Australians have fair, equitable and affordable access to healthcare. Where prevention is prioritised and valued. And corporate interests and profits – of all sorts – take a back seat to an individuals right to health.

Without some reform of our current system, oral health inequities will continue to widen.

Discussion on the future of dentistry invariably converges on advances in technology - whether it is new materials or equipment, or the holy grail of growing a new tooth. Things that are designed to make our lives as dentists easier, simpler, faster or more profitable. And obviously deliver better outcomes to patients.

One thing that they tend to have in common is that they perpetuate the treatment focus of dentistry. The future of dentistry is apparently about how we treat dental disease in new and innovative ways. There is no reimagining a completely new future that doesn’t revolve around treating dental disease.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I talk aboutsome of the issues confronting the dental profession that we must grapple with if we want to build future where all Australians have fair, equitable and affordable access to healthcare. Where prevention is prioritised and valued. And corporate interests and profits – of all sorts – take a back seat to an individuals right to health.

This podcast discusses suicide and topics that some people may find distressing. If this raises any issues for you crisis support services like Lifeline can be reached 24 hours a day on 13 11 14

A new paper just published in the Journal of the American Dental Association looked at suicide mortality amongst US dentists between 1979 and 2018. It found that dentists experienced a higher suicide mortality than the general population, and that had increased since 1995.

This is a tough topic to discuss, but such an important one, as this recent publication highlights. Dentistry is a stressful profession, and dental practitioners suffer a high burden of psychological distress and mental illness. More broadly, suicide continues to be a significant issue in Australia. Every day nearly nine Australians take their life, and it’s estimated that for every death around 30 people will attempt suicide.

When we studied the mental health and wellbeing of Australian dental practitioners at the end of 2021, we found that 1 in 6 reported thoughts of suicide in the previous 12 months, with nearly 1 in 3 saying that they had ever thought about taking their own life, and 5.6% reported having previously made an attempt to take their own life.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I unpack some of the findings of this latest study, compare to some of the findings from our Australian research and discuss some strategies that we can all use to tackle the mental health crisis in the dental profession.

First and foremost we need to keep having discussions about mental health and wellbeing, and working to remove the stigma that is associated with mental health.

Get in the right frame of mind to ask the question, and make sure you leave time to have the conversation. Be prepared if the answer is ‘I’m not okay’ and make sure you are in the right headspace for this response.

• Are you ok?

• How are you going?

• I just wanted to check in and see how you are going?

Listen with compassion and empathy, and without judgement. You don’t have to solve their problem, just focus on helping to understand. Don’t interrupt and be prepared to sit in silence – it’s not easy for somone to answer the question and open up about their struggles. Show empathy and let them know that you have heard them.

Ask if there is anything that you can do to support them and if they have been seeking professional help. If not, encourage them to see a doctor or other mental health professional, particularly if they have been experiencing significant struggles for more than two weeks. There are also services like:

• Lifeline 13 11 14

• Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

Set a reminder to follow up and see how they are going. Ask if they have sought professional help, and encourage them again if they haven’t.

Conversations about mental health can be uncomfortable for everyone. It’s not easy. But it can be life changing. Speaking up is important to save lives. If you’re struggling, it’s also important to speak up and ask for help. It’s not a weakness, it’s a strength.

What can we do?Get ReadyAskListenEncourage ActionFollow-up

In 2014 Health Workforce Australia (HWA) released a report on the future oral health workforce. It came amidst claims from the dental profession that we were facing an oversupply of dentists and calls to cap the number of dental schools and domestic dental graduates, as well as removing dentists from the Skilled Occupation List.

The HWA report predicted a persistent workforce oversupply until at least 2025, projecting that we would have 19,624 dentists and dental specialists working clinically in Australia.

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I drill down into the Health Workforce Australia modelling to see whether their workforce predictions were correct [narrator – they were not], and take a more detailed look at the maldistribution of the dentist workforce over the past decade.

Click here for the charts show the change in the number of dentists (including dental specialists) per 100,000 people by Local Government Area, broken down into Major Cities, Inner Regional and Outer Regional that are mentioned in this episode.

Dental caries continues to be one of the most important public health problems in Australia, and particularly for Australian children. One in three children experience tooth decay in their baby teeth by the age of 5-6 years and 40% in their adult teeth by the age of 12-14 year, and it is the leading cause of preventable hospitalisations amongst Australian children. So early detection and prevention are critically important – at both a public health and individual patient level.

New research published this week shows potential new applications for 3D intra-oral scanning with fluorescence as a tool to enhance the early detection of tooth decay. It is particularly useful to enable a comprehensive dental assessment for children who are only able to tolerate a brief or limited time in the dental chair, and may have telehealth applications for people living in rural and remote areas.

This week on the Dental As Anything podcast I speak to Dr Bree Jones. Bree is a dental academic and researcher at the Melbourne Dental School with expertise spanning public health, diagnostic innovation, education, and sustainability. She holds a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Oral Health, Graduate Certificate in Dental Therapy (Advanced Practice), Master of Public Health, and PhD.

She is the lead author of this paper which found that on-screen assessment of 3D models in colour showed strong agreement with a standard clinical visual examination for caries detection at different disease thresholds - from early lesions through to more extensive disease. 3D intra oral scanning might be a feasible alternative to traditional in-person clinical examination for research, monitoring and population level surveillance.