December 2024

Issue 33 - December 2024

• From the Chair
• Priority news
  • Joint statement on family and domestic violence
  • Compassionate early release of superannuation
• Board news
  • Registration renewal now in the late period
  • Latest workforce data released
• Students and graduates
  • Graduates – apply for registration now
• Regulation at work
  • Dentist banned for having sexual relationship with patient
• What’s new?
  • Ahpra’s annual report shows progress in addressing workforce needs
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner registration reaches exciting milestone
• Keep in touch with the Board

From the Chair

Welcome to the final newsletter for 2024, and my first as Chair of the Dental Board of Australia. I want to thank Dr Murray Thomas for his bold and compassionate leadership over the past six years, during which time he was unwavering in his commitment to hold the dental profession to the highest standards of patient safety, cultural safety and ethical care.

It’s a commitment I share, and I look forward to making sure that through effective and ethical regulation, the public can keep their trust and confidence in dental practitioners.

I want to thank all Board members who are stepping down from service: Murray Thomas, Robin Brown, Julia Christensen, Jacqui Gibson, Kim Jones, Janice Okine, Kate Raymond and Carolynne Smith. I’d also like to welcome those who have joined the Board: Gulnara Abbasova, Ariane Anderson, Rhonda Cumberland, Ioan Jones, Penny Lello, Kerrie O’Rourke and Craig Zimitat. You can read about the appointment of members to National Boards in the Health Ministers’ Meeting communiqué.

Dr Simon Shanahan
Chair, Dental Board of Australia

Priority news

Joint statement on family and domestic violence

Ahpra and the National Boards have released a joint statement with the Office of the Health Ombudsman (Queensland), the Health Care Complaints Commission (NSW), and the Health Professional Councils Authority (NSW) recognising the role of regulators in the collective effort to end family violence.

Dental practitioners are often the first point of contact for victim-survivors, so play an essential role in the early detection, support, referral, and delivery of trauma-informed treatment to those experiencing family violence. Your own conduct, as well as that of your colleagues, must also reflect the trust and confidence your patients have in you for safe and effective healthcare.

This statement is unequivocal in its condemnation of family violence, its support of victim-survivors and the contribution health practitioners make in helping to end family violence.

Read the joint statement.

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Compassionate early release of superannuation

The Board is concerned by the high rate of increase in compassionate early release of superannuation (CRS) for dental treatment in the last financial year. The value of superannuation approved for release for dental treatments nationally has jumped by nearly 68 per cent in the last financial year to $526.4 million.

Compassionate release of superannuation, administered by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), is an important safety net for access to urgent healthcare for people who cannot otherwise afford it, however it can also have significant long-term financial impacts on individuals’ superannuation outcomes. For further information about CRS refer to Access on compassionate grounds | Australian Taxation Office (ato.gov.au).

The Board would like to remind dental practitioners of their existing professional obligations under the Board’s Code of conduct that apply when they are supporting a patient to apply for CRS, including to:

• provide good care, including a proper assessment of the patient in a real-time interaction, taking into account the history, the patient’s views, an appropriate physical examination and any necessary investigations
• ensure informed financial consent before providing treatment. Dental practitioners must be careful not encourage patients to take on specific financial arrangements, such as early access to superannuation, to access treatment
• be honest and not misleading when writing reports and certificates, and only sign documents believed to be accurate. When providing reports to support a patient to gain early access to their super, you need to ensure that you complete the report accurately and only certify treatments or expenses that are medically required for your patient’s circumstances.

While most practitioners do the right thing, providing misleading information to support a patient’s request to draw from superannuation is potentially grounds for the Board to consider disciplinary action, in addition to any action that the ATO may take.

The Board published a release in May this year, highlighting this issue including the importance of complying with the requirements for advertising.

If you are aware of any inappropriate behaviour regarding CRS, you can report this to the ATO by making a tip-off. 

Board news

Registration renewal now in the late period

Time is running out to complete your registration renewal. Late fees now apply for the renewal of general, specialist or non-practising registration.

You should have received a reminder email from Ahpra, providing access to your online renewal.

Information for your 2024 renewal of registration

Remember, you must complete your registration renewal online. Read the renewal FAQs on the Ahpra website for tips on logging in.

If you submit your application on time, or during the following one-month late period, you can continue practising while your application is assessed.

If you don’t renew before the end of the late period on 31 December 2024, your registration will lapse, you’ll be removed from the register of practitioners, and you won’t be able to use the protected titles for the dental profession or practise in the profession.

Got questions about your renewal?

The renewal FAQs on the Ahpra website cover common questions on professional indemnity insurance, recency of practice, continuing professional development, and what to do if you have a change in your criminal history or health impairments you need to tell us about. Remember you don’t need to tell us about well managed health conditions that do not affect your practice.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement and Support team

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement and Support team is here to assist Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander dental practitioners with the renewal process. If, after reading the renewal FAQs, you would like assistance with your renewal application, please email the support team at mobengagementsupport@ahpra.gov.au.

Read more in the news item.

Latest workforce data released

Quarterly registration data to 30 September 2024 shows that at this date, there were 27,717 registered dental practitioners in Australia:

• 24,722 had general registration
• 1,865 had general and specialist registration
• 71 had specialist registration
• 59 had limited registration (postgraduate training, supervised practice, teaching or research), and
• 998 had non-practising registration.

Two practitioners had both general and non-practising registration.

There are 152 dental practitioners who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, or 0.5 per cent of the profession.

Visit our Statistics page for more data, including registrant numbers by division of dental practice, age, gender and principal place of practice.

Students and graduates

Graduates – apply for registration now

Graduates who are about to complete their course this year can take the first step in their new dental career by applying for registration now.

Applying before you finish study means we can start assessing your application while we wait for your graduate results.

You must be registered with the Dental Board of Australia before you can start working as a dental practitioner.

Easy steps to apply online

1. Create your account using the online services and complete your application
2. Upload your documents and pay the required fees. Check that you have provided all required documents to prove you’ve met the registration standards, including certified copies of your photo ID.
3. Wait for your education provider to provide your graduate results to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra).

For more information, read the news item.

Regulation at work

Dentist banned for having sexual relationship with patient

A dentist in Western Australia has had his registration cancelled and been disqualified from applying for registration for two years for having a sexual relationship with a patient, as well as inappropriate self-prescribing, poor record keeping and breaching patient confidentiality.

Read the tribunal summary.

What’s new?

Ahpra’s annual report shows progress in addressing workforce needs

Addressing workforce needs by getting more health practitioners safely registered faster and responding to new risks from emerging models of care are the highlights of the 2023/24 Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) annual report.

At 30 June this year, there were 920,535 registered health practitioners in Australia, a 4.9 per cent increase on the previous year. This means there are now 3.4 registered health practitioners for every 100 Australians. This is the first time the number of registered practitioners has exceeded 900,000, and 96.9 per cent of these practitioners hold practising registration.

Improvements to Ahpra’s registration processes have almost halved the time to finalise international applications, cutting the previous 60-day average to just 33 days. There was strong growth in the number of internationally qualified health practitioners with 48.4 per cent more new overseas practitioners gaining registration than in the previous financial year.

Maintaining a balance between access to needed healthcare and the risk posed by some emerging models of care is a key priority for Ahpra, amid the acceleration of telehealth, online prescribing and direct-to-consumer health services. New models of care in areas such as medicinal cannabis and vaping have led Ahpra to develop cross-regulatory solutions with other regulators, such as the Therapeutic Goods Administration, to take a system-wide approach to patient safety.

Read more in the news item.

For information about the Board’s work and data about our profession, visit the Annual report page on our website.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner registration reaches exciting milestone

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners registered with Ahpra hit 1,000 for the first time in September.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners are a unique profession founded on traditional values, complemented by modern medicine. They are clinical and cultural experts who build trust, practise cultural safety and bring an understanding which strengthens health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

They work autonomously or as part of multidisciplinary teams, providing a broad range of expertise in both primary and tertiary healthcare, from administering and supplying medications, to acute and chronic disease management and advocating for patients.

Their aim is to empower First Nations families and communities to make them feel welcome, safe and comfortable when using health services and to make self-determined decisions about their health and wellbeing. The profession, while small in number, is critical to ‘closing the gap’ by removing disparities in healthcare.

Ahpra and the Dental Board of Australia congratulate the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board of Australia (ATSIHPBA) for ensuring practitioners are suitably trained, qualified and safe to practise, and for working collectively and collaboratively with the National Scheme and stakeholders to eliminate racism in healthcare.

Read more in the media release.

Keep in touch with the Board

As always, we encourage you to regularly check the Dental Board website for information and updates relating to the dental profession.

• Visit our website for information on the National Scheme and the mandatory registration standards, codes, guidelines, policies and fact sheets. Board consultation papers are published on the site under News.
• Lodge an online enquiry form.
• For registration enquiries call 1300 419 495 (from within Australia) or +61 3 9285 3010 (for overseas callers).
• Address mail correspondence to: Executive Officer, Dental Board of Australia, GPO Box 9958, Melbourne VIC 3001.