Project Overview

Regular attendance at dental services is key for preventative care. In Australia, public dental services often have a wide range of service offerings including free dental checkups or benefits for eligible patients. Although these initiatives attempt to increase access and utilisation, at times, they have created challenges to accessing dental services through lengthy wait lists or limited access to emergency dental services. In New South Wales (NSW) there has been limited research into the perceptions of dentists or the general public regarding public dental services. Hence, this project aims to understand the opinions and perceptions of the general public and dental health professionals of public dental services in NSW and provide strategies to improve consumer and dental perceptions based on the findings. This project will undertake a cross sectional survey design using a concurrent two-phase method targeting the general public (phase 1) and dental health professionals (phase 2) in New South Wales.