Mapping essential oral healthcare for the Australian context.

Australia's universal healthcare scheme, Medicare, has largely excluded oral healthcare resulting in inequitable access to affordable, essential oral healthcare. To achieve inclusion of oral health within Australia's universal healthcare scheme, it is necessary to identify and define the dental services that constitute essential oral healthcare. This perspective paper explores how essential oral healthcare should be considered for the Australian context and to align with the World Health Organization's approach to universal health coverage that includes oral health.

Dental Health Services Victoria health promotion messages for oral health: A modified Delphi study.

Issue Addressed: The 2022 Oral health messages for Australia were reviewed, revised and published in 2023. This study adapted these messages from a value-based communication perspective to support Dental Health Services Victoria population health programs and resources.

Methods: A modified Delphi RAND/UCLA appropriateness method was adopted.

Economic evaluation of a community dental care model for people experiencing homelessness.

Aim The study aims to conduct economic evaluation of the Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise (PDSE) programme for people experiencing homelessness over an 18-month period, when compared to a hypothetical base-case scenario ('status quo').Methods A decision tree model was generated in TreeAge Pro Healthcare 2024. Benefit-cost analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis were performed using data informed by the literature and probabilistic sensitivity analysis (Monte Carlo simulation with 1,000 cycles).

Promoting oral cancer screening by general practitioners in Australia: Strengthening primary healthcare.

Background: Oral cancer remains a significant public health issue. General practitioners (GPs) can play an important role in raising awareness of oral cancer.

Objective: This paper explores why providing advice relating to modifiable risk behaviours associated with oral cancer and undertaking routine oral cancer screening are important for GPs in clinical practice.

A policy option towards improving efficiencies in Victorian public oral healthcare.

Background: International oral health policy directions led by the World Health Organisation call for the inclusion of oral health within universal health coverage. The aim of this study is to perform a budget impact analysis of a policy option for a more cost-efficient oral health workforce skill-mix (dentists and oral health therapists) to provide public oral healthcare in Victoria, Australia.

Methods: Two hypothetical standard care pathways were developed.

Leadership, regulatory approaches and policy to re-orientate health services towards health promotion.

Globally, oral conditions remain the most prevalent of all non-communicable diseases. Among the broad range of target goals and recommendations for action by the World Health Organization's Global Oral Health Strategy, we call out three specific actions that provide an enabling environment to improve population oral health including: (i) enabling population oral health reform through leadership, (ii) enabling innovative oral health workforce models, (iii) enabling universal health coverage that includes oral health. The aim of the article is to outline how leadership, regulatory approaches and policy in Australia can strengthen health promotion practice and can inform global efforts to tackle the complex wicked problems associated with population oral health.

Dental Health Services Victoria value-based health care principles for oral health models of care.

Background: Efforts to progress oral healthcare reform can be challenging with competing interests of governments and service providers to achieve the intended outcomes. The value-based health care approach has been adopted in many areas of healthcare but has had limited applications to oral healthcare systems. Dental Health Services Victoria, an Australian state government funded entity, commenced its journey to value-based health care in 2016, to shift away from traditional dental service models that reward activity and volume towards a stronger emphasis on value and outcomes.

Prioritizing population oral health through public policy in Australia: the Victorian experience.

Dental caries, a non-communicable disease, is one of the most prevalent diseases globally and share common modifiable risk factors with obesity such as excess sugar intake. However, prioritization by governments to improve population oral health has been limited and is typically excluded from the discourse of public health policy development. Therefore, interventions that target dental caries can have other co-benefits including obesity prevention.

Modeled health economic and equity impact on dental caries and health outcomes from a 20% sugar sweetened beverages tax in Australia.

Dental caries is the most prevalent oral disease across the life course. This study modeled the population health and economic impact of a 20% sugar sweetened beverages tax (SSB) for preventing dental caries compared to no intervention (societal and healthcare perspective). A cost-effectiveness analysis according to quintiles of area-level socioeconomic disadvantage was performed for the 2020 Australian population (0-100 years old) using a closed cohort Markov model.

Is Australia's lack of national clinical leadership hampering efforts with the oral health policy agenda?

The landmark 2021 Resolution on Oral Health by the 74th World Health Assembly has elevated the importance of oral health into the global health policy agenda. This has led to the development and adoption of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy on Oral Health in 2022. It acknowledged the need to integrate oral health as part of universal health coverage (UHC), which is supported by national clinical leadership for oral health.

Economic Evaluations of Preventive Interventions for Dental Caries and Periodontitis: A Systematic Review.

Objectives: To critically examine the methods used for full economic evaluations of preventive interventions for dental caries and periodontitis.

Methods: Published literature post-2000 was searched to April 2021. Based on a developed intervention classification framework for dental caries and periodontitis, only universal, selective or indicated interventions were included in this review.

Evaluation of an intervention to promote minimally invasive dentistry (MID) in an Australian community dental agency-A pilot study.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of an intervention consisting of a 1-day continuing professional development (CPD) education programme on the International Caries Classification and Management System (ICCMS ), and monthly performance feedback, and to promote minimally invasive dentistry (MID) for children aged under 12 years in an Australian community dental agency. The a priori hypotheses assumed the intervention would increase preventive services, and treatment demand was met.

Methods: A quasi non-randomized controlled trial with convenience sampling method was adopted.

A Cost Analysis of an Outreach School-Based Dental Program: Teeth on Wheels.

Background: This study evaluated an outreach mobile dental service called Teeth on Wheels (TOW). The dental program targeted Australian children from low household income, who are eligible for the Child Dental Benefits Scheme (CDBS) in Victoria, Australia. The program is complemented with a school-based oral health promotion element.

A Validation and Cost-Analysis Study of a Targeted School-Based Dental Check-Up Intervention: Children's Dental Program.

Background: Limited evidence exists to inform best practice approaches to implement school-based dental screening to address child retention via referral for dental services. This research tested the null hypothesis that a targeted school-based dental check-up program (intervention) has a 75% child retention rate for public dental care (H = 0.75).

A Markov cost-effective analysis of biannual fluoride varnish for preventing dental caries in permanent teeth over a 70-year time horizon.

Issue Addressed: Biannual application of fluoride varnish is effective for dental caries prevention, but its cost-effectiveness using quality-adjusted life years (QALY) is unknown. This study performed a cost-effectiveness analysis, from the Australian health care system perspective of biannual application of fluoride varnish versus current practice (non-routine application) for an individual aged 15 years and older over a 70-year time horizon.

Methods: Health outcomes measured were the number of prevented decayed, missing, and filled teeth (prevented-DMFT) and QALY gained.

A dental workforce strategy to make Australian public dental services more efficient.

Background: Dental services can be provided by the oral health therapy (OHT) workforce and dentists. This study aims to quantify the potential cost-savings of increased utilisation of the OHT workforce in providing dental services for children under the Child Dental Benefits Schedule (CDBS). The CDBS is an Australian federal government initiative to increase dental care access for children aged 2-17 years.

Neurosurgical Oncology in Vietnam.

Background: In conjunction with Vietnam's unparalleled economic growth over the past 20 years, our scope of neurosurgical interventions has considerably diversified throughout this time period.

Methods: Although still appreciably limited, healthcare resources and infrastructure have expanded and shifted the focus within neurosurgery at Ho Chi Minh City's Cho Ray Hospital from head trauma (which remains highly prevalent) to an equal proportion of elective cases for vascular lesions, tumors, and degenerative spine disease. Arguably the most significant progress throughout the new millennium has been achieved in the realm of neurosurgical oncology.

Developing Professionalism in Dentistry: A Systematic Review.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Professionalism is a core competency and concern in all health professional education.