DENTAL SERVICES
Dental care , treatment and education for children and adults .
Delivering smiles across our community
We helped a record number of people across Merri-bek to safeguard their dental health this year .
We expanded our Smile Squad program , which provides free dental care to government primary and secondary school students in partnership with Dental Health Services Victoria .
Our voucher program initiative also encouraged more adults to access our dental care .
We also focussed on improving our service by upgrading our sterilisation room facilities and adding oral health educators to our clinical workforce .
A key performance measure is how quickly we respond to dental emergencies . We report on this using a Dental Health Services Victoria tool that classifies patient needs as category 1-3 according to urgency .
What did we achieve ?
3,717 people accessed our dental services , up 24.9 % from last year
98 % infection control result – exceeding 95 % target
low prescriptions given , showing that our clinicians have a great understanding of antimicrobial stewardship principles
92 % triage compliance for Category 2 emergencies – exceeding 80 % target
85 % triage compliance for Category 3 emergencies – exceeding 75 % target
1,000 children from 9 schools received Smile Squad dental care
7 new Smile Squad staff members recruited
completed the refurbishment of a new sterilisation room
hosted the Victorian Minister of Health on World Oral Health Day and demonstrated our Smile Squad program
Where can we improve ?
78 % triage compliance for Category 1 emergencies , slightly short of the target 85 %
continued advocacy to increase our funding to help reduce waitlists , improve timely access to care and support prevention of oral diseases and early intervention for consumers
growing our workforce is an ongoing challenge . We are implementing several strategies to attract experienced staff
What ’ s next ?
expanding Smile Squad to reach 2,500 students and 20 schools next year
exploring other outreach possibilities , including homeless shelters and aged care
centralising the sterilisation of reusable medical devices
advocating to the State Government for more dental chairs and ongoing funding
Merri Health ’ s Ann Dinh providing dental care for child .
52 Health