Overview

John Rogers (Specialist in Public Health Dentistry with more than 45 years' experience in management and policy development) and Jamie Robertson AM (over 40 years in private dental practice, extensive public governance and practice experience, and noted historian of the dental profession) look back on 50 years of public dental health in Victoria and Australia. They make a forensic examination of changes in oral health, shifts in government policy, professional practice, technological advancements and public expectations. With a lens focussed firmly on health equity, they ask how good oral health for all Australians can be achieved. While often taken for granted, good oral health is fundamental to good mental and physical health. Poor oral health precipitates and perpetuates low self-esteem and adversely affects a person's ability to eat a nutritious diet, find employment, and engage socially without embarrassment. Oral diseases cause pain and suffering. And yet, despite the well-meaning policy initiatives of some governments over the last half century, dental care remains out of the reach of many Australians and dental health inequality is increasing. While there are many reasons for poor oral health, it is often a clear sign of social disadvantage. Australia's public dental system is a tattered safety net failing Australians on lower incomes, forcing them to face long years waiting for general care. Dental care remains mostly excluded from Medicare. The mouth has been left out of the body. We urgently need a national conversation about how this situation can be remedied. In this unique history, the authors show how we have arrived at the current state of affairs. They trace oral health and disease alongside the complex interaction of social, political and economic factors over the past five decades. Drawing on the latest WHO Global Strategy for oral health, they delve into the past to chart a future in which better oral health is achievable for all. While there is a particular focus on Victoria, the issues are common across Australia and indeed the world.

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9780645819106

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A key reference for oral, public health, and policy students and practitioners, policy makers, health historians and all people concerned about a fair go for all Australians. This important and timely book traces the complex interactions of social, political and economic factors that have shaped the oral health of Victorians, and more broadly Australians, over the past five decades. It provides a roadmap of how we arrived at the current dental health system as well as a compass indicating future trends and directions. Professor Alastair J Sloan, Head of Melbourne Dental School, The University of Melbourne The detailed research and insightful perspectives will enable all people concerned about a fair go for all Australians to learn from the past and help create a system that is more equitable for all.

Author Information

John Rogers, a Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne Dental School since 2017, has more than 45 years' experience in management and policy development in public dental health and community health in Australia and overseas. He has worked in Papua New Guinea, Yemen, Vietnam, England and Australia. In 2007 he was a WHO dental public health consultant in Vietnam. After public health roles overseas, John managed the Peninsula Community Health Service in outer Melbourne from 1985-89. He then served as Principal Oral Health Policy Advisor in the Victorian Department of Health until 2019. A Fellow of the Public Health Association of Australia, John holds a Bachelor of Dental Science, a Master of Public Health and a PhD and is a registered specialist in public health dentistry. Jamie Robertson graduated as a Bachelor of Dental Surgery from the University of Glasgow in 1967 and then spent two years working for a medical mission in northern Canada. His first post in Australia was at the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne. After running his own private practice for 40 years, Jamie took up a clinical position with cohealth, a large community health centre in the western suburbs of Melbourne, where he worked for five years. Jamie has served as a director on the boards of the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne and Dental Health Services Victoria. While working in dentistry, he completed Arts and Public Health degrees at the University of Melbourne.

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