Bad teeth are costing the Australian economy more than $1.3 billion in lost employment, an anti-poverty group says.
Brotherhood of St Laurence executive director Tony Nicholson said the costs of poor dental health was borne by people least able to afford them.
Children in low socioeconomic areas had 70 per cent more decay in their teeth than children in high socioeconomic areas.
The Brotherhood of St Laurence said End the Decay, a report about the cost of poor dental health, analysed data to estimate the disease burden of untreated dental conditions and the resulting economic cost.
At least a million work days and at least 600,000 school days were lost each year because of poor dental health, according to the report by Professor Jeff Richardson, from Monash University, and Bronwyn Richardson, from Campbell Research and Consulting. The cost in lost productivity was estimated at $660 million.
The direct and indirect costs to the economy was estimated at between $1.3 billion and $2 billion annually. Hospital admissions caused by dental conditions made up the largest category of preventable acute hospital admissions, costing the health system $223 million a year.
Adults on the lowest incomes were almost 60 times more likely to have no teeth than those on the highest incomes. Indigenous people were twice as likely to have untreated decay than non-indigenous people.
Mr Nicholson said poor and missing teeth were a sign of poverty and social exclusion.
"Poor dental health can cause pain that impairs eating and speaking and it can disfigure people's faces, eroding their confidence, undermining their employability and excluding them from mainstream economic and social life," he said.
The federal government had an opportunity to start fixing the dental health system in the next budget.
"We urge the government, the Greens and the Independents to consider the very high costs that are already being imposed on those least able to pay and to start developing a dental plan that works for these groups," Mr Nicholson said.
Any increased spending on dental health would be offset by productivity gains and a reduction in the costs of healthcare from preventable oral-health conditions, the report found.
There was an urgent need to improve affordability and access to dental care for disadvantaged people, Mr Nicholson said.
He urged the government to develop a plan and timetable for the introduction of a universal dental scheme, to develop a pilot program in a particular area and introduce measures to attract private dentists to do work in the public system.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare also released data on Wednesday about oral health and dental care in Australia.
The AIHW report found 38 per cent of adults living in remote or very remote areas had higher rates of untreated decay, compared with 24 per cent of city people.
Untreated decay in people without dental health insurance was at 31 per cent, compared with 19 per cent of people with such insurance.
In 2010, the AIHW figures showed a quarter of people felt uncomfortable about their dental appearance. Some 29 per cent of adults between the ages of 45 and 69 felt uncomfortable about their teeth, compared with 19 per cent of those aged 15 to 24.
More than half the population had some level of private dental cover. People in major cities were more likely to have dental insurance, and low-income households were less likely to have it than high-income households.
The Greens have urged the government to commit to a $5 billion universal Denticare plan in next year's budget.
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