Australian Dental Association Admits To Dentist Shortage In Rural Area’s

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 The Australian Dental Association has admitted there is a shortage of dentists in the rural areas of New South Wales, despite the fact that the number of graduates has increased over the last decade.

President of the association, Dr Karin Alexander, said there is a common misconception that an increase in the number of dentists means more dentists will work in rural areas. In fact, this is not the case at all and there are still gaps in the regional network, despite concerns about an oversupply of dentists.

Dr Alexander said the association has recently called for limits on student intake due to fears of oversupply. However, due to poor distribution of dental professionals there are several rural communities without access to dental services.

It is the belief of Dr Alexander that dentists should be offered incentives by the Federal Government to encourage them to work in underserved areas, which should include additional funding to make a rural practice viable.

Dr Alexander added that most public dental services are at capacity in terms of the number of dentists they employ. She made calls for the government to act on improving the distribution of dentists to ensure people living in remote areas have access to a dentist.

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