00:02We know that young people aged 18 to 25 are really experiencing a cost-of-living crisis,
00:08increasing rent crashes, busy schedules with work and study, and often dentistry really
00:14falls off the bandwagon and they only attend when issues are urgent or painful.
00:20One of the things that this survey turns up is this idea of DIY dentistry.
00:26Tell us how that manifests itself, how that comes about.
00:28Most definitely.
00:31Very common.
00:31In practice, a lot of patients will ask me about alternative therapies.
00:35There's a lot of pressure on young people now on social media to have perfectly straight
00:40white teeth, and often social media portrays cosmetic dentistry as a quick healthcare fix.
00:46That's not the case.
00:47There are actually risks and complications with doing DIY treatment, so we always encourage
00:52young people and any Australians to go seek clarity with their dentists and have a professional
00:58consult because often social media doesn't actually show the full extent of the picture.
01:02When you talk about risk, though, are we talking about things that are readily available over
01:06the counter as well?
01:08Most definitely.
01:09There is a range of over-the-counter materials, so you can pick up something from your pharmacist
01:14that focuses on teeth whitening, for example.
01:16A lot of those products actually are not as high percentage as what can be prescribed by
01:21your dentist, but a more concerning issue is that they're not customised to the patient.
01:26So there's risk of causing sensitivity to teeth, burn on the gums or, you know, whitening areas
01:32that are actually cavities or decay.
01:34So a lot of people are choosing to have cosmetic fixes where the underlying health issue is
01:39not actually being addressed.
01:41What role does social media play here?
01:43I mean, there are a lot of, you know, trying to resist the term influencer, but there are
01:47people who are very qualified dental health professionals who do go on social media, make
01:53these videos.
01:54Is it bad to use social media as your first entry point to considering what sort of therapy
02:00you might seek?
02:00I think we would be silly to think that readily available information on social media is not
02:06apparent.
02:07That's where a lot of young people seek information.
02:10So this campaign is actually trying to meet them with that gap.
02:14There's no issue in seeking more information about your health care, but we just want to
02:20make sure that it's actually accurate information.
02:23So a lot of individuals who are not dentally qualified may be showing a snippet of their
02:28procedures, whether it be cosmetic or whether it be something that is actually not even
02:34in the realm of dentistry.
02:35What we actually want to encourage young Australians is to go have those conversations with their
02:41dentists.
02:41They can have the information that they may have generated from social media, influencers,
02:46AI, but dentists are still the professional experts who have the training and qualifications
02:51to talk about the different treatment options.
02:53But where it's too expensive and not covered by Medicare, we'll get to that in a moment,
02:58but where it's too expensive, what is the next best option for someone?
03:01The first option would be having the consult.
03:05A lot of the time, that's not actually the expense.
03:08It's more the treatment that may be considered more expensive.
03:12There is also, you know, government services that are available for those who are eligible
03:16with a health care card.
03:18And a lot of private health insurances will cover a portion of basic dental treatment,
03:23like a check-up and a clean as preventative care.
03:25Now, this long-running campaign, the Greens are major proponents of making Medicare cover
03:32dental care.
03:34The Gratton Institute did a paper on this last year as well, and costing this at roughly
03:40between $8 billion a year according to Gratton, $20 billion according to the Greens.
03:45This is a lot of money.
03:47What would you say the best way to roll dental care into Medicare is, given that it is expensive,
03:53a difficult pill to swallow for government and taxpayers, and ultimately there's a skills
03:59shortage as well?
04:00Yes, most definitely.
04:01You've really encapsulated a lot of the problems that we're aware of in the profession.
04:05So the ADA is pushing for government to actually adopt the National Oral Health Plan, which
04:11is something that proposed a staged support system for individual priority groups.
04:18So we are lobbying with government.
04:20We have someone who sits in Canberra who actually has those conversations, and ADA is actually
04:26doing a two-day Dentist on the Hill event where we're going to meet with local MPs to actually
04:31talk about the importance of expanded care.
04:34people, and
04:35people, you know,
04:35You
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