Dental As Anything

The biggest issue with artificial intelligence isn’t that it makes mistakes, it’s that it has the potential to make mistakes at scale at the same time that people are trusting it to be infallible.Technology usually progresses at a speed that outpaces existing regulation and legislation, and we are then forced to play catch up when the cat is already out of the bag. This is complicated by a tech sector that is becoming increasing powerful and transnational, making regulation more difficult.The proliferation of artificial intelligence tools in healthcare broadly, and in dentistry specifically alongside the propensity of many practitioners to be technological minded early adopters, has the potential to be a gamechanger. But as we know, games can be both won and lost.The Therapeutic Goods Administration recently published a report on regulating medical software devices including artificial intelligence and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare has created resources on the safe and responsible use of artificial intelligence in healthcare.We need to understand the capability – and perhaps more importantly the reliability and reproducibility – of the tools that we are using. Ambient AI scribes listen in to a patient consultation to transcribe notes, but they can make mistakes and provide inaccurate or nonsensical outputs. This is an intrinsic characteristic of generative AI tools. They fabricate diagnoses, omit or add steps in treatment plans, and confuse similar words like ‘medication’ and ‘mediation’ or ‘meditation’.AI still struggles with complexity in a way that humans do not. Clinicians have – or at least should have – an ability to understand the nuance in a conversation, which includes interpreting non-verbal cues. Are digital scribes capable of doing that? How often are we checking the accuracy and veracity of the transcription? And if we don’t, what is the possibility of errors finding their way into the clinical record – and what is the potential impact of that?In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I talk about the issues of regulation of artificial intelligence in healthcare, and the importance for practitioners in understanding not only the potential limitations of AI tools, but also their ethical and legal obligations when using such tools.

Seemingly neutral prerequisite subjects and admissions settings systematically disadvantage rural and low socioeconomic status students - a question of fairness that has workforce implications.Have you ever thought about how you were selected into dental school, and whether that process was the best way to select future dentists? Or perhaps more importantly, how that selection process shapes the profession and ultimately plays a role in either improving health outcomes or exacerbating inequities in access to care.Some interesting new evidence looks at how selection criteria for medical school might perpetuate disadvantage, particularly for students from rural areas and lower socioeconomic backgrounds.In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I look at some of the evidence that underpins student selection, and talk about ways in which this might contribute to the maldistribution of the dental workforce, particularly from a geographic perspective. Could this then be one of the levers that might help improve access to care in underserved communities? Somecontentious food for thought.

In a country gripped by an affordability crisis, what are we doing to ensure that all Australians can access the dental care that they need?Recent news stories have shone a light on dental affordability, with many Australians flocking overseas for major dental treatment. For many Australians, dental care has quietly become a luxury — not a routine service but a decision weighed against rent, food, fuel and other essentials.They avoid the dentist not mainly because they fear the drill — although dental anxiety does play a role — but because the system forces them to choose between essential living costs and essential health care. That’s not choice, that’s constraint. As cost-of-living pressures grow and health inequalities widen, ignoring dental care isn’t a cost-saving strategy; it’s a ticking public health time-bomb.In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I talk about our two tiered system that has split Australians into those who can afford routine visits and preventive care to maintain their oral health, and those who are trapped in a cycle of pain, delayed care and costly treatment as a consequence.It’s time we recognised dental health not as a discretionary service but as an integral part of health care worthy of protection, funding, and equality.As a profession we must grapple these issues if we want to build future where all Australians have fair, equitable and affordable access to healthcare. Where prevention is prioritised and valued. And corporate interests and profits – of all sorts – take a back seat to an individuals right to health.Without some reform of our current system, oral health inequities will continue to widen.

Discussion on the future of dentistry invariably converges on advances in technology - whether it is new materials or equipment, or the holy grail of growing a new tooth. Things that are designed to make our lives as dentists easier, simpler, faster or more profitable. And obviously deliver better outcomes to patients.One thing that they tend to have in common is that they perpetuate the treatment focus of dentistry. The future of dentistry is apparently about how we treat dental disease in new and innovative ways. There is no reimagining a completely new future that doesn’t revolve around treating dental disease. In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I talk aboutsome of the issues confronting the dental profession that we must grapple with if we want to build future where all Australians have fair, equitable and affordable access to healthcare. Where prevention is prioritised and valued. And corporate interests and profits – of all sorts – take a back seat to an individuals right to health.

This podcast discusses suicide and topics that some people may find distressing. If this raises any issues for you crisis support services like Lifeline can be reached 24 hours a day on 13 11 14A new paper just published in the Journal of the American Dental Association looked at suicide mortality amongst US dentists between 1979 and 2018. It found that dentists experienced a higher suicide mortality than the general population, and that had increased since 1995.This is a tough topic to discuss, but such an important one, as this recent publication highlights. Dentistry is a stressful profession, and dental practitioners suffer a high burden of psychological distress and mental illness. More broadly, suicide continues to be a significant issue in Australia. Every day nearly nine Australians take their life, and it’s estimated that for every death around 30 people will attempt suicide.When we studied the mental health and wellbeing of Australian dental practitioners at the end of 2021, we found that 1 in 6 reported thoughts of suicide in the previous 12 months, with nearly 1 in 3 saying that they had ever thought about taking their own life, and 5.6% reported having previously made an attempt to take their own life.In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I unpack some of the findings of this latest study, compare to some of the findings from our Australian research and discuss some strategies that we can all use to tackle the mental health crisis in the dental profession.First and foremost we need to keep having discussions about mental health and wellbeing, and working to remove the stigma that is associated with mental health.Get in the right frame of mind to ask the question, and make sure you leave time to have the conversation. Be prepared if the answer is ‘I’m not okay’ and make sure you are in the right headspace for this response.Are you ok? How are you going?I just wanted to check in and see how you are going?Listen with compassion and empathy, and without judgement. You don’t have to solve their problem, just focus on helping to understand. Don’t interrupt and be prepared to sit in silence – it’s not easy for somone to answer the question and open up about their struggles. Show empathy and let them know that you have heard them.Ask if there is anything that you can do to support them and if they have been seeking professional help. If not, encourage them to see a doctor or other mental health professional, particularly if they have been experiencing significant struggles for more than two weeks. There are also services like:Lifeline 13 11 14Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636Set a reminder to follow up and see how they are going. Ask if they have sought professional help, and encourage them again if they haven’t.Conversations about mental health can be uncomfortable for everyone. It’s not easy. But it can be life changing. Speaking up is important to save lives. If you’re struggling, it’s also important to speak up and ask for help. It’s not a weakness, it’s a strength.What can we do?Get ReadyAskListenEncourage ActionFollow-up

In 2014 Health Workforce Australia (HWA) released a report on the future oral health workforce. It came amidst claims from the dental profession that we were facing an oversupply of dentists and calls to cap the number of dental schools and domestic dental graduates, as well as removing dentists from the Skilled Occupation List.The HWA report predicted a persistent workforce oversupply until at least 2025, projecting that we would have 19,624 dentists and dental specialists working clinically in Australia.In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I drill down into the Health Workforce Australia modelling to see whether their workforce predictions were correct [narrator – they were not], and take a more detailed look at the maldistribution of the dentist workforce over the past decade.Click here for the charts show the change in the number of dentists (including dental specialists) per 100,000 people by Local Government Area, broken down into Major Cities, Inner Regional and Outer Regional that are mentioned in this episode.

Dental caries continues to be one of the most important public health problems in Australia, and particularly for Australian children. One in three children experience tooth decay in their baby teeth by the age of 5-6 years and 40% in their adult teeth by the age of 12-14 year, and it is the leading cause of preventable hospitalisations amongst Australian children. So early detection and prevention are critically important – at both a public health and individual patient level.New research published this week shows potential new applications for 3D intra-oral scanning with fluorescence as a tool to enhance the early detection of tooth decay. It is particularly useful to enable a comprehensive dental assessment for children who are only able to tolerate a brief or limited time in the dental chair, and may have telehealth applications for people living in rural and remote areas.This week on the Dental As Anything podcast I speak to Dr Bree Jones. Bree is a dental academic and researcher at the Melbourne Dental School with expertise spanning public health, diagnostic innovation, education, and sustainability. She holds a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Oral Health, Graduate Certificate in Dental Therapy (Advanced Practice), Master of Public Health, and PhD.She is the lead author of this paper which found that on-screen assessment of 3D models in colour showed strong agreement with a standard clinical visual examination for caries detection at different disease thresholds - from early lesions through to more extensive disease. 3D intra oral scanning might be a feasible alternative to traditional in-person clinical examination for research, monitoring and population level surveillance.

Advocacy is an important part of our role in the dental profession, but often feels like a thankless task. I recently spent the day in Canberra courtesy of the Australian Dental Industry Association who hosted a parliamentary roundtable on the dental industry.This week on the Dental As Anything podcast I give you a peak behind the curtains to hopefully gain some insight into what actually happens, how oral health is viewed in Canberra and perhaps why progress isn’t as quick as we would like (but why there is hope on the not too distant horizon).

With recent talk about expanding Medicare to include more dental services, it’s worth revisiting the last time that this was done with the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme, which ran from 2008 to 2013. The scheme delivered nearly $2.8 billion in dental treatment, highlighting the value of the scheme in improving access for necessary dental care as well as evidence of pent-up demand. However, the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme became politicised and was controversially brought to a close in 2013 amidst allegations of rorting by dental practitioners and cost blow-outs.Myths about the scheme, particularly the reasons for its closure, persist to this day, making ongoing advocacy efforts to improve access to dental care much more difficult.This week on Dental As Anything I talk to Professor Hans Zoellner, former head of Oral Pathology at the University of Sydney. He formed the Association for the Promotion of Oral Health, a think-tank and advocacy group to improve oral health, and was outspoken in his support for the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme. He has provided evidence to various state and federal parliamentary inquiries and published research on the utilisation of the scheme highlighting how it was functioning to meet an important community need.

Opioid prescribing by Australian dentists has increased over the past decade, although the quantity dispensed has reduced. New research highlights some concerning trends with significant implications.In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I speak to Associate Professor Leanne Teoh about her latest study and the implications for the dental profession. Leanne is a pharmacist, practising dentist and academic at the Melbourne Dental School.She has a strong interest in dental prescribing and developed MIMS Drugs 4 Dent as a clinical decision tool for dental practitioners and co-authored Therapeutic Guidelines Oral and Dental Version 2.

We make snap judgements about people based solely on their appearance, and draw negative assumptions about people with visibly poor oral health, contributing to shame, stigma and even bullying.The face is the window to the soul. Our physical appearance,particularly that of our smile, often dictates people’s first impressions of us. And first impressions flow through to behaviours – to how people treat us. And as we know, first impressions are hard to shake. That is why the dentalprofession has been shifting over time from one that has been solely focused on disease and function to one where appearance and aesthetics are key, both responding to and driving patient demand. But what of the people who sufferfrom poor oral health, and who struggle to access dental care?Two recent research papers piqued my interest, one looking at the issue of bullying related to tooth loss in Australian children, and the other an exploration of the issue of dental shame. They get to the heart of this idea that good oral health is fundamental to our appearance and to our self-esteem.We know this is important, because it is almost impossible to hide your dental condition from others during any form of social interaction. It’s why poor oral health is probably one of the most obvious and visible signs of poverty and disadvantage.In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcastI talk about the social and psychological impact of poor oral health and the importance of thinking more broadly about the impacts for people who cannot access dental care.References:Does Tooth Loss Lead to School Bullying? Evidence from the Longitudinal Study of Australian ChildrenDental Shame: A Call for Understanding and Addressing the Role of Shame in Oral Health

A new study has looked at the media coverage and the implications for the dentistry, particularly in terms of societal attitudes towards dental health and the dental profession.The recent trend of dental practices promoting the use of superannuation for dental treatment has become a hot topic issue in the dental profession over the past few years. From $108 million in 2020-21 to $526 million last year, the scale of use in dentistry far exceeds the other areas where superannuation is being withdrawn on compassionate grounds.Now, a new study Supercharged Smiles: A Discourse Analysis of Australian Media Coverage of Funding Dental Care Through Superannuation published in the Australian Dental Journal has looked at how the media has reported this phenomenon. Professor Alex Holden from the University of Sydney examined 36 media articles written by 25 different authors across 18 media platforms published between 2022 to 2025. Across all the media articles that were reviewed, there was a predominantly negative discourse which highlights the ethical, social, and professional challenges that early superannuation release presents to dentists, patients and the broader community, as well as policy makers.At the top level, there were three main themes that emerged from the 36 articles. The first was one of outrage at the necessity that patients were forced to use their retirement savings to pay for essential dental care, the second was about the exploitation of vulnerable patients by some dentists and the final theme was about abuse of the system by patients and dentists for elective and cosmetic dental treatment, when the guidelines are pretty clear about the criteria for use.In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I talk about this new study and the narrative that has emerged about this scheme, and the importance of the dental profession in taking an active stand on this issue.

How much did you pay for your dental degree? Were you one of the lucky ones who received a free education? Did you come in during the early days of student fees in the early 1990s when $10,000 was enough to cover the tuition fees for dental school? Or are you a recent graduate or current student at a graduate entry school in a full fee paying place, paying more than $80,000 per year for your dental degree, on top of the twenty odd thousand dollars you paid for your undergraduate degree?As the cost of a dental degree at some Australian universities passes $400,000, there are clearly implications for potential students, graduates and the broader community.This week on the Dental As Anything podcast I talk about the burgeoning cost of dental education, and the implications for both graduates and the broader community.

What does the Australian constitution say about the powers of the Commonwealth to provide dental services and what impact might that have on the dental profession in the context of expanding Medicare?Medicare and dentistry is in the news again now that the new Commonwealth parliament has commenced, with the Greens vowing to use their balance of power in the Senate to pressure the government to add dental care into Medicare.One of the common concerns from dentists about Medicare funded dentistry is the impact on their earnings and the profitability of their business due to low rebates. It is also invariably linked to the spectre of NHS-style dentistry and the deterioration of clinical outcomes for patients. There are assumptions about the power and reach of the government to control the dental profession if Medicare is expanded to include some dental services.In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast, I discuss the history of the amendment to the Australian constitution which gave the Commonwealth the power to legislate for the provision of medical and dental services, and what the civil conscription clause means in the context of options for reform of public dental funding.Section 51xxiiiA: The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to: the provision of maternity allowances, widows’ pensions, child endowment, unemployment, pharmaceutical, sickness and hospital benefits, medical and dental services (but not so as to authorize any form of civil conscription), benefits to students and family allowances.

Dentistry is a $12 billion a year industry and growing, making it a valuable target for private equity investment. But what are the implications for patients when others seek to profit from healthcare?A recent article in the Australian Financial Review reported large dental chain Dental Boutique had appointed Morgan Stanley and Gilbert + Tobin to sell their business. It is part of a growing trend both here in Australia and internationally for the consolidation and corporatisation of healthcare businesses, and in particular for private equity funds to buy into healthcare.But is raises some important questions about whether this is a good thing, and who profits from healthcare?A recent scoping review on the role of private equity in health found that there were both positive and negative impacts on health outcomes, staffing and costs, but importantly found no evidence of consistently positive effects of private equity in health.In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast, I explore the issue of private equity investment in the dental industry, noting trends in dentistry from the USA (where 1 in 8 dentists are now associated with private equity) and trends in the medical profession in Australia.

Trust is essential to the normal function of society, yet it is perhaps not something that we spend a lot of time thinking about until it’s gone. Long term data on trusted professions shows that dentists rank in the top 5 – behind nurses, doctors, pharmacists and teachers, although trust has been declining since peaking in 2017.In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast, we discuss the important issue of trust - what it is, why it’s important and why we are seeing a gradual erosion of trust - in individuals and institutions. Rebuilding trust requires accountability, high standards of honesty and integrity, openness and transparency and most importantly good communication. Ultimately, building and maintaining trust is important for everyone, and therefore is everyone’s responsibility.

In this episode of the Dental as Anything podcast I talk about our new paper Oral Health Meets Commercial Determinants: An Opportunity to Bridge Individual and Structural Approaches published this week in the Australian Dental Journal with colleagues from the University of Sydney and Deakin University. We highlight the role of structural and commercial factors, operating outside an individual's control, that drive the high prevalence of oral disease and inequities at a population level, and argue that dental practitioners must also consider the broader commercial forces which contribute to oral disease in order to make meaningful steps in reducing inequities in the burden of oral diseases.

New guidelines on cosmetic procedures and a statement on the use of superannuation for dental treatment have again shone the light on ethical conduct and the tension between business and healthcare.In the past week Ahpra has released two guidelines and a joint statement with the Dental and Medical boards which highlight some ethical challenges facing the dental profession. They come off the back of a series of stories, and no doubt complaints and notifications, regarding cosmetic procedures and the compassionate release of superannuation.In this episode of the Dental as Anything podcast I talk the new Ahpra guidelines on cosmetic procedures and the implications for dental practitioners, and our role more broadly in upholding ethical standards to maintain trust in the profession.

What do we do when a dental practitioner breaks the trust of patients? Should we discuss that within the profession? What happens when those cases are picked up by the media and talked about in the public sphere? Should we engage in the discussion or try and shut it down.In this episode of the Dental as Anything podcast I talk about the vexed issue of the early release of superannuation, over-servicing, the role of the media in reporting stories of interest, and how the dental profession should respond.

Health is inherently political . Like any resource or commodity in our neo-liberal economic system, some social groups have more of it than others. We also know that the social and commercial determinants of health – more than just individual behaviours – are amendable to political interventions.In this episode of the Dental as Anything podcast I talk about the history of expanding Medicare to include more dental services, the broader support and advocacy for schemes such as Senior Dental Benefits Scheme and the important role of research in supporting advocacy efforts.References:Australian dental practitioner attitudes to expanding Medicare to include more dental services World Dental Federation. Universal Health Coverage - Oral Health for All (Fact Sheet)What is universal health coverage?