That children under 18 can receive free dental care? Is this in all cases or just some? Is it through all dentists are only community health?
DD1 needs to go to her first dental appo9intment but not sure about how it works for kids.
Yep my kids get free dental. And I pay $30 for every appt outside a) an emergency or b) their allocated appointments. And the most ill pay per child is around $200 a year. But if you have to go back say for a follow up from a previous appt it's free too.
The dentists are AMAZING they work mostly with children.
IF you are in NSW there are 'school dentists' that are based at a school and they will give kids up to 18 free dental treatment. But I'm not sure how you actually go about finding them because there aren't that many anymore. I used to take my kids to ours, but she wasn't very good so I started taking them to an actual dentist as she was only a dental therapist and they had bigger problems than what she could treat.
Ditto to what Trillian said. We were using the children's dental service in the ACT, which was great when we needed it, but it turned out it's a dental technician doing the work and not a doctor-level dentist. I was happy as long as it was just basic check ups etc, but for any other work I would find out what the options were - which could vary a lot depending on where you live.
Well they all looked like dentists and acted like dentists, and I wouldn't have known the difference. But DD needed prophylactic antibiotics, so they had to find the actual dentist (there was only 1 of them rostered on) to make a judgement call on her treatment. But then a technician actually did the work.
ETA: I should add that that this was in the ACT where there is a shortage of most types of medical/allied health professionals, so maybe that's the reason they use technicians - because they just couldn't get enough staff otherwise.
Last edited by AnyDream; May 8th, 2013 at 12:43 AM.
Although it was 20yrs ago I lost a lot of my back teeth and have spent an absolute fortune on my front teeth to keep them from damage done from school dentists and I know I am not the only one. I am sure times have changed but unless just for a check up I wouldn't let anyone but a trusted dentist do any work to my children's teeth. Teens are eligible for a voucher but that is only $180 so doesn't cover a lot and not much help if your children are younger. Where I work there is a community dentist but I am not so sure about that either. I know they are fond of removing baby teeth that are mildly decayed and could be repaired which is all good and well but then can create a crowding problem if back permanent molars come forward before the front teeth fall out and are replaced with adult teeth which then can cause a need for extensive orthodontic work years later when the front teeth come through all over the place. Sometimes the cheaper quick fix now can create all sorts of nightmares later.
I've been to the dentist a handful of times and 90% of those were the dental vans. As a kid.
The crowding thing isn't so anymore. Now admittedly we've only needed seals and fillings. But only for DD as DS has my teeth, never had a filling in my life.
I think that's really unfortunate that some areas give poor care. But TBH if we didn't have this service we wouldn't be able to afford private dental care. Not at the moment anyway.
I agree, Rouge. Free/low cost care is better than none at all. And with dental, getting teeth checked regularly and problems dealt with quickly helps preserve dental health and keep costs much lower over the longer term. That's why the public schemes are important, even more when you find out the sorts of health problems that can arise as a result of poor dental health later in life (everything from heart disease to cancer).
Heads up: The Teen Dental program will be closing as at 31 December 2013. It will be replaced with a different scheme starting 1 Jan 2014 (that is, if it doesn't get a swift kick to the head next Tues night), means tested along the same lines at FTB Part A, and will pay for lower cost dental procedures. More info here. Not sure what impact this will have on state funded school dental services.
Last edited by AnyDream; May 7th, 2013 at 10:59 PM.
Qld does dental vans too - I think they come every second year to the schools for a period of time -several months usually depending on the number of students I suppose.
WA has free school dentists - your child is scheduled in once a year for a check-up and then any subsequent work. This is all free. If you choose to go to another dentist then you will pay. Major orthodontic work is not free.
SA also has the school dentist for under 18s. I've been told by my CYH nurse that I should take my older boy in for a check (<4) twice in the past 6 months (both times I've gone to get boys weighed and checked) but I'm yet to gt organized for it - not going to happen during school term as DH is useless for things like that & it's not easy to get time off school for me to do it.
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Childrens dental care. Is this right?
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