Background

Dental caries are the most prevalent health problem in Australia.¹ The impact of poor oral health is significant at an individual and public health level, and poor oral health is linked with low socio-economic status and disadvantage.² The Covid pandemic has also led to delays in preventive care access and dental waitlists and service demand continue to increase. 

Adults of refugee background have high rates of dental disease, with limited studies on the prevalence of dental disease in refugee children,^3,4 and no published Australian data on children seeking asylum. Refugee background and asylum seeker children in Australia are at risk of poor oral health due to pre-migration adversity, increased accessibility to high sugar snacks/beverages after migration, and decreased traditional oral hygiene practices.^5,6 In addition, barriers to accessing dental services are well described for refugee-background communities in Australia.^{3-5, 7-10} More recently, oral health has been a prominent issue in children arriving from Afghanistan, and very recent arrivals from Ukraine. 

This page is intended as a quick guide to oral health resources, referral pathways, and details on funding options for dental care in refugee and asylum seeker children and adolescents. 

Oral health resources

• DHSV Oral health advice - Dental, Teeth tips, For Professionals
  • Babies and toddlers (0-2 years)
  • Pre-school children (3-5 years)
  • Primary age children (5-12 years)
  • Adolescents/young adults
  • Translated oral health advice (inc Arabic, Burmese, Chin, Dari, Dinka, Farsi, Karen, Nuer, Somali, Tamil & others)
  • Smiles4Miles program (early years oral health)
    
• Raising Children - Dental (includes some audio-visual resources, but not translated)
• Refugee & Asylum Seeker Oral Health Recall Tool - 2017
  
• NSW refugee health dental resources (not all these links work) 

Dental services

• Australian Dental Association - Find a dentist (inc by specialty)
• DHSV - Service finder
• DHSV - Services for refugees and asylum seekers
• DHSV - Special needs (& referral form)
• School-based - the dental buses are back! The Smile squad program provides free dental care for all Victorian public school students (from 2022). Students do not need Medicare, healthcare card or be eligible for the CDBS (see below) to participate.

Funding supports

• The Child Dental Benefits Schedule (CDBS) provides up to $1026 over 2 calendar years for basic dental services in children 0-17 years. The CDBS does not cover orthodontics or hospital dental services. In order to be eligible, children must be eligible for Medicare, and receive specified Centrelink payments. If children are eligible, families should be sent a letter via Medicare/myGov. 
• Refugee and asylum seekers (all ages) are eligible for free care in public dental services in Victoria. 

Other

• Healthy eating - NSW Munch & Move - translated fact sheets
• Age assessment - Birth date issues are common in refugee background children. Dental examination is part of a holistic age assessment process - tooth eruption charts are useful.

^{Immigrant health resources. Author: Georgie Paxton, Tatiana Polizzi, May 2022. Contact: georgia.paxton@rch.org.au}