A new report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows most Australians rate their oral health as good, but socioeconomic factors play a big role.
Nearly 80 per cent Australian adults rated their oral health as good, very good or excellent in 2008, according to the report, entitled Self-rated oral health of adults.
However just over one in 5 Australian adults rated their oral health as poor or fair, and many of these Australians fell into categories of low socioeconomic status.
The report, Self-rated oral health of adults, identifies associations between self-rated oral health and socioeconomic factors, such as education, private dental insurance, health care card status, home ownership and difficulty paying a $150 dental bill.
When asked ‘How do you rate your oral health?’ over 65 per cent of Australians responded ‘good’ or ‘very good’ and 11 per cent as ‘excellent’, but 21 per cent rated their oral health as ‘fair’ or ‘poor’.
“About 30 per cent of those aged 25 to 64 years without dental insurance and almost 40 per cent of those aged 45 to 65 years who were renting their home rated their oral health as fair or poor,” said Dr Jane Harford of the AIHW’s Dental Statistics and Research Unit.
“Poor self-reported oral health is associated with lower levels of education, not having any dental insurance, renting your own home and reporting having difficulty paying $150 dental bill, which is about the cost of a checkup and a scale and clean and x-rays,” she said.
Lower levels of education were also associated with poorer self-rated oral health in all age groups.
“The largest difference was in the 25 to 44 year age group, in which 25 per cent of those without tertiary education rated their oral health as poor, compared with 14 per cent of those with at least some tertiary education,” Dr Harford said.
Among people aged 25 to 44, those who reported difficulty in paying a $150 dental bill were more likely to report fair or poor oral health than those who reported no difficulty in paying a $150 dental bill.
A second report released at the same time, Socioeconomic variation in periodontitis among Australian adults 2004-06, examines how periodontitis (inflammation of the tissues surrounding the teeth) varies by socioeconomic status.
“The report shows that moderate and severe periodontitis was found in nearly one-quarter of Australian adults aged 18 years and older. Periodontitis is strongly related to age and also household income. After adjusting for age and sex, the prevalence of periodontitis is almost twice as great in lower income than higher income households,” Dr Harford said.
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