By medical reporter Sophie Scott, Alison Branley
Video: Public dental scheme put on hold (ABC News)
Photo: Most of the $2.7 billion spending will go towards the Child Dental Benefits Schedule.
Dental health advocates say federal budget cuts to services are a disaster, and waiting lists will balloon as a result.
The Government has cut two dental programs in the budget, and put on hold a $390 million program for the states to shorten adult waiting lists.
Federal Health Minister Peter Dutton says the dental budget is actually going up, saying the Government will spend $2.7 billion on dental services over the next four years.
Most of the increase is to the Child Dental Benefits Schedule, a program announced under the previous Labor government and supported by the Coalition.
The $2.7 billion program provides funding for up to $1,000 of basic dental work for children aged two to 17.
Speaking on the ABC's AM program, Mr Dutton said the Government would spend $250 million this year on dental services.
"Next year on dental we'll spend $600 million, an increase of 138 per cent. Over the course of the next four years, we will spend $2.77 billion," he said.
"We are spending a lot of money on dental and we'll spend more into the future."
A spokesman for Mr Dutton's office said most of the $250 million was for the child dental program, as was more than $600 million in grants in subsequent years.
The program was instituted after the scrapping of the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme, under which costs ballooned out of control.
Australian Dental Association president Dr Karin Alexander says tighter rules on family welfare payments (Family Tax Benefit A) mean some children could miss out on the child dental scheme.
"Those children will not be able to access care at all, they will be just left in limbo,'' she said.
Adult dental programs under threat
There are also concerns that budget cuts and program delays for adult dental programs will severely affect state waiting lists.
An estimated 400,000 people are on dental waiting lists around the country, and in some states federal funding has helped cut waiting lists by up to half.
But health advocates said the lists are still too long.
Griffith University Professor of Dental Research Newell Johnson said the delay of the $390 million national partnerships program to reduce adult waiting lists was a "disaster" for dental health.
"It's certainly going to make it worse for people who rely on the public system,'' he said.
"It's high time we realised that dental health is as important as any other part of the body."
Dr Alexander said waiting lists could double or treble, depending on the delay.
"Then the waiting lists are going to grow and you are going to have people sitting there in pain once again," she said.
More than $200 million for new dental clinics in regional areas and nursing homes has also been scrapped in the budget.
Among those affected by waiting lists is Sydney Pastor John Keane, who had to wait almost six months to have his teeth assessed.
The father-of-four has been told it could be another six months before they are repaired.
The 70-year-old has lost most of his bottom teeth, making it difficult to eat hard foods.
"As a church pastor I'm not speaking as clearly as I used to and I tend to lisp a little bit which my congregation say they don't notice, but I do,'' he said.
"I've learnt to live with it. And I have people in my church congregation who are really going through all sorts of medical tests and are quite ill. By comparing myself with them, I think I'm well off.''
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