Richard is an age pensioner in his 70s and lives in regional NSW. Already having lower partial dentures, he was getting further pain through some of the remaining teeth. He contacted his local Area Health Service (AHS) for treatment.

I was advised that because I’m an age pensioner, I qualified for treatment under the public dental scheme. I discussed my need for dental work and was told that I would have to wait for an appointment to be made for me and that would be a 40 minute assessment consultation, not treatment A further appointment for treatment would be made at this time, depending on what they believed I needed. I was told that it may be six months or longer, depending on their work load.

At the consultation, Richard was advised that extension work to his current dentures was not available and what could be done was the standard extraction and subsequent dentures. He was told that treatment could take a further six to 12 months.

One weekend, Richard found himself in dire need of immediate treatment because the pain he felt became unbearable. But, being a Saturday during the Christmas holiday break, there were no dentists available in his town.

There was no emergency dental care at our hospital either. I rang the AHS but I could only leave a message, and our local dentists were not available until 20 January. I called the Sydney Dental Hospital but there was no help there either at this time.

His only alternative was to seek private dental treatment in Sydney. He managed to do this and over a three-day period his pain was subsided with extractions and an extension to his existing dentures. But the cost put enormous pressure on his and his wife’s budgets.

Of course it cost a lot. We were fortunate we later received the $2,100 government bonus which helped pay off the dental work. But that had been allocated to some other needs, old appliances and the like.

Richard’s treatment was not fully complete and he still required further consultation for other teeth which were not extracted in his visit to the Sydney dentist. Over a period of a year, Richard contacted the AHS on five occasions, leaving recorded messages each time. Finally, following the fifth call he received a response.

When I asked why I had not been contacted about an appointment as I’d been told by the previous person over a year before, I was told that person no longer worked there! No assessment was available in the near future as no dentist was available in my district. So no treatment of any sort was available, let alone a denture upgrade which I probably need – it’s unlikely to be covered. But he said, should I experience unbearable pain and need immediate relief ‘please call, and we’ll see if an exception can be made and perhaps a future appointment could be made in [another regional centre]’! That’s a round trip of some 300km from home!

Thanks to the treatment he was able to receive privately in Sydney, Richard’s pain is not as severe as it once was. However, Richard is still badly affected by the condition of his teeth.

Where does one go from here? We have no funds to cover dental work, therefore no treatment’s available.