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Association has issued the Federal government with a formal plea, calling for an overhaul of the Australian dental care system.
The ADA is seeking government support for a targeted approach to improve dental care for Australia's most vulnerable populations.
Dr Scott Davis is the Federal President of the Australian Dental Association.
He says the stark inequalities in access to dental care experienced by disadvantaged Australians is a long-standing issue that needs urgent attention.
"Australian dentists have long recognised there's an inadequate amount of funding for dental treatment for in particular disadvantaged groups or people with special needs, such as residential aged care and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. And of course we need more public funding for disadvantaged Australians on low income."
Research published by the ADA suggests the current public dental care system is drastically underfunded and oversubscribed.
Funding for the public dental system currently only covers 30% of those eligible, and the vast majority of dentistry in Australia is done by dentists in the private sector.
The high cost of the private system is leaving huge swathes of the population without dental care.
This is creating what Dr Lesley Russell from the Menzies Centre for Health Policy calls a distinct dental divide.
"You can tell a lot about an Australian's socio-economic status, where they live and their abilities to get a job, by their smile. There are kids who don't even have a filling. And then there are children who have decay even in their first teeth. There are adults who have had to resort to pulling their own teeth because they're in pain and they can't afford to get access to treatment. So the issue really comes down to affordability and accessibility."
Kate Paul is one of the many who have experienced the challenges of dental care affordability under the current system.
Ms Paul was told by a General Practitioner she needed to seek urgent dental surgery for her four year old son who had developed a tooth abscess.
However, when her son was assessed by a dentist, Ms Paul was told he was not eligible for emergency care because his dental situation was not extreme enough.
Under the public system, the wait time would have been at least 12 months, which Ms Paul says made private dental care the only option.
"You know, for us to wait 12 months, he's already got an abscess in the tooth. He already had a course of extremely strong antibiotics. We'd had X-rays done and an ultrasound done that showed that the infection from his tooth was actually in the bone. So waiting 12 months. We know that dental infections can lead to things like sepsis as well. It's extremely expensive and not something that we anticipated on having to pay this year, but we just didn't really have another option."
The accumulated cost of the surgery, dental appointments and preventative care was a significant shock to Ms Paul.
"My four year old needs to have a tooth extraction; because he's four and won't be able to sit through an extraction in the dental chair in like a dental surgery. He needs to have a general anesthetic. I guess all up by the end of the experience we'll probably be out of pocket, close to about $4,700."
She says her own experience has made clear how dire the situation is, especially for those who can't afford the substantial costs of private dental care.
"When I went down to the dental clinic and saw the other children in the waiting room, they were horribly sick they were holding their faces and they were you know, there was one little boy whose face was visibly swollen you know from whatever was going on with his teeth and I thought wow, I feel like felt like a bit like a crisis kind of care."
Dr Russell says not enough is being done to address the drastic inequality that exists in access to dental care- an inequality that is perpetuating disadvantage.
While there have been calls for dental care to be integrated into Australia's Medicare system, Dr Russell says the cost of this process has deterred governments from doing so.
"The estimates of the cost are somewhere between seven and $10 billion dollars a year. And people would have to be willing to pay additional Medicare levy to maybe use some of the money that's currently used for the private health insurance rebate. To cover that. It's easy to see why governments have avoided the topic when you look at the dollar signs that are attached to it."
With these prohibitive costs in mind, the ADA is advocating for the government to instead set up targeted schemes to provide support for Australia's most disadvantaged and vulnerable populations.
Dr Davis says the ADA has proposed that the first scheme to be rolled out should support aged populations, who are one of the groups most vulnerable to poor dental health.
"The seniors dental benefit schedule really came to a fore after the Royal Commission into aged care, and we identified there are particular Australians who have very poor oral health and this is impacting significantly on their general health. So we've asked the government to consider a modest amount of money of approximately $100 million to help all of these elderly Australians whose health is being impacted by not having access to oral health care."
With this Seniors Dental Benefit scheme as a model, the ADA suggest similar schemes could be rolled out for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, people living with a disability, and those on low incomes.
Dr Davis says this would dramatically improve general health, which would ultimately reduce government spending in the long run.
"What's just not been understood or disseminated well is the significant impact that poor oral health has on general health. And dentists will know that periodontal disease in particular can impact on cardiovascular health, kidney health, dementia, arthritis, diabetes, numerous conditions, exacerbated or made unstable by poor oral health. The government investing in in supporting good oral health will actually reduce the disease burden of the community as a whole."
A Senate Inquiry into access to dental services in Australia is currently underway, and is set to hand down its report in February.
Dr Davis says he is hopeful the findings of the inquiry will instigate much-needed government action.
"What's important is that we'll be able to highlight these needs and hopefully educate the government members as to how important it is to address these very significant challenges that the Australian community faces. In particular, those people who are disadvantaged and just financially can't afford to pay for private care themselves."
