Calls for public dental funding as patients wait more than four years for procedures

Dentists are calling for oral health to be prioritised in the federal election fight as some Australians are reported to be waiting up to four years for dental procedures.

The Australian Dental Association has warned there is a large backlog of dental health procedures needing to occur as more dentistry issues are being seen among the population following COVID-19 lockdowns.

"There are a lot of really big problems," CEO of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Dental Association, Matthew Hopcraft, has told Tony Jones on 3AW.

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"We've had more than 200 days of lockdown in Victoria where people have had to defer their treatment because dentists were shutdown so we're seeing the impacts of that."

Dr Hopcraft said there were 150,000 people on the public waiting list for dental procedures in Victoria, with patients waiting more than four years in some areas.

"You can imagine what is going to happen to someone's oral health if the have to wait four years," he said.

Dr Hopcraft said the average wait time in the public dental system, which mainly serviced vulnerable people and those on healthcare cards, had jumped to 25 months.

He said the issue was partly caused by a maldistribution of dentists, with the public dental sector catering for about 30 per cent of the population, but only including around 10 per cent of dentists.

He has called for governments to do more to make working in the public sector more appealing to dentists, saying the area had been neglected by state and federal governments for too long.

Stress and anxiety caused by the pandemic has also contributed to the wait list, as more people grind their teeth.

Dr Hopcraft said dentists were reporting seeing lots more patients with broken teeth due to grinding than they were prior to the pandemic.