00:00She might be smiling now, but four-year-old Mia Van Leeuwen from Biloela in central Queensland
00:08suffered severe toothache for three months.
00:11She was in pain.
00:12She couldn't eat properly or brush her teeth.
00:15It caused great discomfort to her and it was hard to get her to brush her teeth.
00:19Before having dental crowns implanted under general anaesthetic in hospital, her family's
00:23only option was to travel 400 kilometres to Harvey Bay.
00:28It's massive because we have no family support, so it means that both Sam and I have to take
00:32time off our jobs and stay for three days just to get the treatment done for Mia.
00:39Dr Tim Keyes says he's the only private paediatric dentist north of the Sunshine Coast.
00:45We've got patients that have flown down from Darwin, from Cairns, they drive for example
00:50from Biloela, and this is quite a common occurrence.
00:53Dentists say hospitals are cutting back on oral services.
00:56So the access issue that we see now, we're actually at a crisis point.
01:00Day hospitals say funding models used by insurers puts further pressure on the system.
01:05A procedure that might take five minutes or ten minutes, a very simple procedure, compared
01:11to one that could take four or five hours, they're paid exactly the same.
01:15Dentists have renewed calls to have general anaesthetic covered by the Child Dental Benefit
01:19Scheme, but accessibility remains a problem due to hospital lists and overcrowding.
01:24Keyes' family says children shouldn't have to wait.
01:27I believe that dentistry should be funded in some way, because for many people it's
01:34out of reach.
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