Make Dental Free

Make Dental Free

Everyone should be able to afford the dentist.

But a third of Victorians don't go until it's an emergency, because it's too expensive.

The Greens will create a public dental system so all Victorians can have healthy teeth, and we’ll tax the big gambling corporations to pay for it.

Gambling companies make billions off the back of Victorian wages, while people are struggling to pay for basic healthcare.

With publicly-owned dental clinics, we can provide free and quality dental care for everyone.

We need a policy with teeth, not empty election promises.

Our plan

  1. Building up the public dental workforce and infrastructure
  2. Making a major investment in education and prevention
  3. Opening free dental clinics across the state

Explore our plan to Make Dental Free

The Greens will expand public dental for all Victorians

Victoria’s public dental system is totally inadequate. Very few people get seen, and the waiting lists can be years. This is because it’s been severely underfunded, and doesn’t have enough staff or up to date infrastructure.

The Greens will rebuild the public dental workforce and infrastructure without further delaying treatment for the 9000 already on the public dental waiting lists under the state Labor government.

We will invest $3 billion over 10 years to expand free dental care to everyone across Victoria, while ending the long waiting lists Labor has overseen for existing public dental patients. This will be an initial investment towards:

  • Modern fully equipped public dental facilities and increased staffing at all community health centres in Victoria
  • Growing the public dental workforce by making Victorian oral health workers the best paid in Australia, backed by a comprehensive workforce strategy that considers training, graduate placements, incentives for private dental practitioners to work in public dental and in rural areas, and expanding the range of skills dental workers can practice in public dental.
  • Funding to enhance oral dental and oral health services delivered by Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations
  • Removing out-of-pocket expenses for public dental
  • Opening more free clinics

While staff and infrastructure are being developed, the Greens’ plan will help to reduce wait times in the public dental system using properly funded vouchers to access free care in the private system.

The Greens will open 20 free dental clinics across the state

The Greens will open publicly-owned clinics that provide free dental care to all Victorians.

We will open 20 clinics in a range of locations including regional Victoria and inner and outer Melbourne, while opening more over time. These clinics will provide free dental care (excluding cosmetic and orthodontic).

The Greens will make a major investment in prevention

Prevention is better (and cheaper!) than a cure. 

Oral disease is a significant and preventable public health issue that places substantial pressure on Victoria's health system. Preventable dental conditions result in thousands of hospital admissions each year, and are linked to many different health conditions including heart disease and diabetes.

The Greens will make a major investment in prevention, including:

  • An education campaign on sugar and brushing
  • Scaling up of the existing pre-school education program
  • Resources for pharmacists, aged care staff and others to refer people to dental care
  • Funding to enable more towns to access fluoridated water
  • Support for alternatives for areas without fluoridated water, and 
  • More fluoride treatments for high risk people.

Bad teeth and gums cause pain and contribute to chronic disease, reduced quality of life, lost workforce productivity, and avoidable healthcare expenditure. Strengthening prevention and improving access to affordable dental care will make our society healthier, and save a whole lot of money along the way.