Queensland pensioner Sherry Williams used to be an active member of her community – she was a gymnastics coach and a volunteer.
She loved to smile and spend time with her family.
That is no longer the case, after she was unable to afford dental services and now has no front teeth on the bottom and is missing others on the top.
Sherry says it's difficult to do simple tasks like "to chew food".
"It is embarrassing to go out in public," she adds.
"I don't like to have my photograph taken, which I used to love years ago – I would always have my photograph taken with my daughter.
"I have an 8-year-old grandson – I try not to get my photo taken with him but if I don't, I fear that he will know me personally for a short couple of years, but when I'm gone he won't."
COVID delays and cost of living pressures mean people aren't going to the dentist
Sherry's story is all too familiar to Padma Gadiyar, founder & CEO of Smilo.AI — an oral health startup.
Since COVID restrictions were lifted, she's seen an increase in patients presenting to her private practice with serious oral health problems that could have been prevented and required less surgery — if they'd been treated sooner.
"People have missed their hygiene appointments during COVID, we are seeing more broken teeth and all that kind of emergency work," the Brisbane dentist says.
"A lot of appointments were cancelled and now the small things have led to a big hole and infection."
Dr Gadiyar says a big problem is that people view dental care as an out-of-pocket expense and therefore something that is just for "the rich or the affluent or those who can afford it."
"People are worried about cost, but when things are in their early stages the cost is minimal," she says.
"When people finally go to the dentist, most of them go when there is pain, when there is a problem."
Even if patients try to access dental care early, Dr Gadiyar says waiting lists across both private and public sectors are being exacerbated by workforce shortages.
"In private practice, we are all having a huge shortage of dental nurses and our care is not equally distributed, major cities have all of the dentists," she explains.
"I have practices in regional Queensland as well and we are struggling to get dentists there ... so there are growing waiting lists."
"Even in our public system, the waiting period is three years and it is pretty much impossible to get a same-day appointment at the moment."
Sherry can't access government-funded dental care because she's not 'in pain'
Sherry has weak teeth prone to breaking and becoming loose as a result of medication she took as a child.
During the COVID lockdowns, her back teeth cracked, requiring two operations she could not afford on her pension — so she was forced to ask friends to fund her treatment.
"It costs a lot of money to get your teeth fixed," she says.
"You can break your arm and go to the hospital and it's fixed within a couple of hours, but if it's your teeth you're put on a waiting list," she says.
Since then, her dental situation has not improved and she isn't eligible for government-funded dental care to replace other teeth that have fallen out because she, by definition, is not in 'pain'.
"I have to ring [the dentist] up at 7am and say I am in pain," she explains.
"But the thing is I'm not in pain, so they won't take me back because you have to be in pain."
"The problem I'm having is eating, talking, swallowing my medicines."
Affordable and accessible dental care is a national problem
Long wait times aren't just a problem in Queensland — Dean of Dentistry at Sydney University Heiko Spallek says they are occurring in every state and territory across Australia.
"In NSW alone, 107,000 people are on the waiting list and 13,000 kids are waiting for dental care," he says.
"We should keep in mind that this is not just having a toothache for a long time, sometimes for up to three years, but it also means that during that time the problems get worse."
"For kids it means not going to school because they have pain, for adults it means they will probably not participate in the workforce."
A survey of 25,000 people by the Australian Dental Association last year found 58 per cent of Australians had delayed dental treatment.
According to Professor Spallek, this means prevention and early detection of problems are missed because of the cost of going to the dentist.
"Even people with private health insurance, 20 per cent of them defer treatment because of cost reasons," he says.
"Last time I checked, the mouth was a part of the body — but we don't treat it like this, we treat it as an extra."
Ensuring Australians are able to access affordable dental care is high on the federal Greens wish list, with the party leading a Senate Inquiry into the issue.
"There are tens of thousands of people in Australia who end up in hospital for treatment of dental conditions that could have been prevented, had they been treated earlier," Greens Senator Jordon Steele-John told the Senate at the launch of the inquiry.
"We must move to a publicly funded universal dental scheme that tackles dental disease proactively."
The Provision of and Access to Dental Services in Australia Senate Inquiry is focusing on community experiences of accessing dentistry, the barriers Australians face and what needs to change.
The committee is due to present an interim report later this month and expected to deliver its final report by the end of the year.
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