Rural and remote dental care: Patient characteristics and health care provision

Objective: To describe the characteristics of patients who used the Royal Flying Doctor Service dental clinics and determine Royal Flying Doctor Service and non-Royal Flying Doctor Service dental service provision in mainland Australia. Design: A prospective cohort study. Setting: All Royal Flying Doctor Service dental clinics located throughout rural and remote Australia. Participants: All patients who accessed an Royal Flying Doctor Service dental clinic from April 2017 to September 2018. Interventions: Royal Flying Doctor Service mobile dental clinics. Main outcome measures: Patient demographics and dental procedures conducted (by age, sex and Indigenous status); and the dental service provision and coverage (Royal Flying Doctor Service and non-Royal Flying Doctor Service) within mainland rural and remote Australia. Results: There were 8992 patient episodes comprising 3407 individual patients with 27 897 services completed. There were 920 (27%) Indigenous and 1465 (43%) non-Indigenous patients (n = 1022 missing ethnicity data). The mean (SD) age was 31.5 (24.8) years; the age groups 5-9 years and 10-14 years received 17.6% and 15.1% of the services, respectively. There were 1124 (33%) men and 1295 (38%) women (n = 988 with missing sex data). Women were more likely (all P <.05) to receive preventive services, diagnostic services, restorative services, general services, endodontics and periodontics. Men were more likely (both P <.05) to receive oral surgery and prosthodontics. There are many rural and remote people required to travel more than 60 minutes by vehicle to access dental care. Conclusion: Without increasing dental provision and preventive services in rural areas, it seems likely that there are and will be unnecessary oral emergencies and hospitalisations.