Dental As Anything - Tanya Plibersek Stole My Teefff

Immediate apology for a technical error in that Ms Plibersek didn't write directly to me or specifically sign her name to any correspondence, but the two letters I refer to below are both headed thus;

Australian Government

Department of Health and Ageing

Notice To Patients

Closure of the Medicare Chronic Disease Dental Scheme

and the 'reminder' letter I received in October 2012 (?)* states that;       
           "On 29 August 2012 the Minister for Health, the Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, announced
             a $4.1 billion Dental Reform package. This package builds a fairer dental system."
*(sorry, could have been as late as November; first letter Sept/October; both letters unsigned and undated 
    and received well after the issues already covered in media)

I have previously referred to the CDDS as the Enhanced Dental Care Scheme...that is how it was originally described to me...same animal.

As a former Cancer patient (previous post) I was extremely fortunate to qualify for and be put on the CDDS in April 2011 when a new dentist happened to begin practising in Mt Gambier who happened to be accepting CDDS patients; at the time I had a bad cyst under one tooth and a second infection starting to develop on the other side under another tooth.    

Within weeks the infections were resolved, and within months the rest of my teeth were effectively saved; I only lost one tooth....good dentistry...good dentistry.

When that dentist left Mt Gambier (early 2012) the other dentist took over her CDDS patients, as per previous post...good humanity...good humanity.

I did have to pay the 'gap' of about $1,000 across 18 months, but I have received approx $3,500 of funding for work that would not have been done at the Mount Gambier Hospital because the public dental services have a specific limit as to how much time and money they are allowed to spend per tooth...literally.

I do not know exactly what these limits are, and even whether they are officially 'written down' somewhere, or if dentists are officially told, whatever...the limit exists and its a very low bar.

The two tooth-saving 'root canals' that I had treated under CDDS would not have survived the South Australian Public Dental Service cost criteria...three teeth gone.

The remaining CDDS work saved two more teeth with major cavities, and fixed several other problematic teeth with minor cavities, etc...five teeth gone and more still going.

I have spoken to several other people who have accessed the CDDS at different stages, and unfortunately a couple of those could not get their work completed, and others who failed to qualify despite having quite obvious dental health issues, not least of all because they've shown me..."...I've got this rotten tooth here, look....", etc.  

The current Public Dental Service waiting time in Mt Gambier is 4 years...four years...not days...or weeks...or even months...years...I chose a bad expletive deleted week to give up expletive deleted swearing!

And that is why Ms Plibersek's letters are so offensive, because she either just doesn't know or jusn't care that she/the Gillard Labor Government are destroying a system that clearly does work, and dumping those patients back into the already chronically over-loaded PDS;
        
          "Most patients who accessed services under the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme are
           eligible for services in public dental services. From December 2012, $344 million will
           be available to the states and territories for public dental services to assist many former
           Chronic Disease patients to get access to public dental services much sooner.

           From July 2014, an additional $1.3 billion will be prepared to the states and territories to
           further strengthen the public dental system and get services to those people most in need."

That is throwing responsibility to the states and territories, and particularly in South Australia, means that whatever small sums do actually eventuate for SA will be spent entirely in Adelaide.

Far more likely that that money sees new chairs in the Premier's office before it does in the SA PBS.

Destroying a system that is working and dumping those patients back into a PDS that isn't, and then blaming that demise on a few alleged rorts and/or the dentists, and trying to excuse the whole thing with empty promises of an un-funded program that they will never get to implement because of the electoral backlash they are sailing into....expletive deleted....explet....wait...^#@**)@$?><?))#.....oh yeah....*^*$#@%?>? @*%)_##.....that's the stuff....

I reiterate: proper school based dental clinics offering on-site early childhood intervention using trainee technicians, etc, in a preventative strategy, with mobile units for Regional areas. This also frees up the PDS to address current adult problems....it is just that simple.

And get that flouride crap out of the water supply; it is undeniably a scattergun application of an alleged medication via the water supply...which reminds me...

Ms Plibersek was recently on Q and A (an ABC TV political panel show) slinging the same sloppy non-science and personal denigration at Flouridation opponents as Paul Willis (of Catalyst) recently did on the ABC Radio (as per previous post).....I feel a song coming on....

Well I do know why I came here to write,
I got a feelin' that somethin' ain't right,
So scared we'll lose all of our dental chairs,
And I don't know how I'm not goin' to swear,
Clowns to the Left of Julia, Jokers to the Right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.                        (extreme apologies to all musicians concerned)

I am not a dentist, doctor, health technician, etc, please access professional health advice should you require it, however, some truths are 'self-evident' - the best way to address dental health issues is always by prevention, by pre-emptive programs of education and regular childhood check-ups.

This Arvo: TFTIM: MLC Anne Bressigton 

oh boy...the excitement    (yes, that is absolutely sarcasm)