Smiles for Miles heads to Country SA

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Smiles for Miles

The Australian Dental Foundation is pleased to bring its Smiles for Miles project of oral health screening,
treatment and education to SA country people.

“By almost every measure, people living in the regions of SA are suffering from poorer oral health than
their city counterparts,” Foundation chairman Dr Greg Miller said, referring to statistics from the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

“Children have more decay, more hospitalisations for dental issues and less access to the care and education that could help prevent this.

“Seniors living in residential care anywhere can find it hard to get to a dentist but it becomes
particularly difficult in the regions where the dentist may be hundreds of kilometres away,” Dr Miller
said.

With support from Country SA PHN, the Foundation is launching an 18-month program to visit schools,
childcare and residential aged care facilities in each of SA’s six regional Local Health Networks.
In selected locations we will also see patients from the general public.

Our first port of call is the Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network.

In June and July this year we will visit:
● Kingston-on-Murray
● Monash
● Pinnaroo
● Lameroo
● Loxton
● Waikerie

Smiles for Miles is presented by the Australian Dental Foundation with support from Country SA
PHN (Primary Health Network) through the Australian Government PHN program.

Register a Patient

Please note: General Patient appointments are only available in Kingston-on-Murray, Lameroo, and Pinnaroo as part of the current program rollout.

For more information contact Shauna Black
shauna@dentalfoundation.org.au

Facts and figures
● Children aged 5 to 10 who live in remote or very remote areas are twice as likely as their
city counterparts to have a baby tooth missing because of decay.1
● First Nations children are twice as likely to have a tooth missing due to decay than non-
indigenous children. 1
● In most regional areas, fewer than 50% of the children who are eligible for the
Child Dental Benefits Schedule are accessing that program. 2
● Children in regional South Australia have been identified (by SA Dental) as a
priority population, with increased risk driven by: environmental and social
determinants (e.g. diet, water quality, obesity); reduced access to preventive and
early intervention services; limited workforce availability. 3

  1. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
  2. SA Dental
  3. SA Oral Health Alliance

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