Poor dental health impacting on Aboriginal mums
University of Adelaide researchers are calling for a greater sensitivity towards Aboriginal women in dental clinics and improved accessibility to dental care.
This follows research that finds pregnant Aboriginal women are a vulnerable population who suffer from multiple dental health and social problems.
Associate Professor Lisa Jamieson, Director of the Indigenous Oral Health Unit at the University of Adelaide, studied 446 women pregnant with Aboriginal children and found that:
- they were six times more likely to need a tooth extraction than those in the general population;
- they were twice as likely to need fillings;
- more likely to visit the dentist because of dental pain;
- nearly two-thirds avoided dental care because of cost; and
- four our of every five women would have difficulty paying a $100 dental bill.