In a sign that the fight for the future for the Child Dental Benefits Schedule (CDBS) is far from over, the ADA has appeared at a Greens-initiated Informal Senate Hearing on Government funding of dental services in Australia.

While the Government continues to treat the closure of the CDBS and its replacement by the Child and Adult Dental Benefits Scheme (caPDS) as a foregone conclusion, the ADA is determined to keep applying the pressure to retain the CDBS, arguing that the oral health of Australia's children is at stake.

In their opening remarks to the hearing, ADA Federal Vice President, Dr. Hugo Sachs and Deputy CEO Eithne Irving underscored that good oral health is fundamental to optimum overall health, not to mention a productive and cohesive community.

And while the Government often notes the cost savings to be made from closing the CDBS, which the Budget Savings Bill has identified as $52 million over four years, the reality is that this amount pales in comparison to the costs that will result from withdrawing the preventive oral health benefits of the current scheme.

In fact, it's been estimated that the cost to Medicare for patients visiting medical practitioners with dental problems is anywhere from $10 million to $300 million per annum, testament to how much preventive schemes like the CDBS save the community in the long run.

While the proposed annual investment in the caPDS of $420 million is being promoted as more than adequate substitute for the CDBS, the fact remains that it amounts to only $42 per person when the average amount spent per capita is in the region of $360 per head.

Additionally, the caPDS will be delivered via the under-resourced and over-stretched public dental system, which will not only mean longer waiting times for treatment and increased out-of-pocket expenses for patients, but increased travel for rural and remote people to receive the care they need.

By every conceivable yardstick, the new scheme fails to measure up to the existing CDBS which allows families to access care where they live in a timely manner, makes uses of existing infrastructure and dental workforce, and works preventatively to keep people out of hospital with chronic health issues from untreated dental issues.

It is the ADA's firm opinion that if the Government is serious about delivering oral health care to disadvantaged children and adults, that it should not only retain the CDBS but it is a template to develop additional specialised progressive directed at needy adult populations, all of whom have substantial unmet dental need.

This article was originally sourced from ADA.