ACTGHS last visit to dentist, adults
Please note that these indicators are not currently up to date and will be replaced shortly with dashboards. In the meantime the most currently available data is available at https://www.data.act.gov.au or contact healthinfo@act.gov.au
Commentary
In 2021, respondents to the ACT General Health Survey aged 18 years and over were significantly more like to report that they had visited a dental professional less than a year ago (53.3%) than 1 to less than 2 years ago (19.6%), 2 to less than 5 years ago (18.0%), 5 to less than 10 years ago (5.0%) or 10 years or more ago or never (4.1%). There was no significant difference between males and females or between age groups in any of the visits to a dentist categories in 2021.
For the purpose of reporting the ACT General Health Survey data on HealthStats, if the 95% confidence intervals of the estimates do not overlap, they are considered to be significantly different.
Note: The indicator shows self-reported data collected through Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI). Estimates were weighted to adjust for differences in the probability of selection among respondents and were benchmarked to the estimated residential population using the latest available Australian Bureau of Statistics population estimates.
Data for oral health are not collected every third year (i.e. 2019 and 2022).
Persons includes male, female, other and refused sex respondents and may not always add to the sum of male and female.
The following estimates have a relative standard error between 25% and 50% and should be used with caution:
- 2018: respondents aged 18 to 24 years who had last visited a dental professional 2 to less than 5 years ago
- 2018: respondents aged 45 to 64 years who had last visited a dental professional 5 to less than 10 years ago
- 2018: respondents aged 45 to 64 years and 65 years and over who had last visited a dental professional 10 years or more ago or never2018, 2020 and 2021: females who last visited a dental professional 10 years or more ago or never
- 2020: respondents aged 65 years and over who had last visited a dental professional 1 to less than 2 years ago
- 2020: respondents aged 25 to 44 years and 45 to 64 years who had last visited a dental professional 10 years or more ago or never
- 2020: males who last visited a dental professional 10 years or more ago or never. - 2021: respondents aged 18 to 24 years who had last visited a dental professional 1 to less than 2 years ago
- 2021: respondents aged 45 to 64 years who had last visited a dental professional 10 years or more ago or never
The following estimates have not been published due to small numbers or a relative standard error greater than 50%:
- 2018: respondents aged 18 to 24 years who had last visited a dental professional 1 to less than 2 years ago
- 2018, 2020 and 2021: respondents aged 18 to 24 years and 65 years and over who had last visited a dental professional 5 to less than 10 years ago
- 2018: respondents aged 18 to 24 years who had last visited a dental professional 10 years or more ago or never
- 2020: respondents aged 18 to 24 years who had last visited a dental professional 2 to less than 5 years ago
- 2020 and 2021: respondents aged 18 to 24 years and 65 years and over who had last visited a dental professional 10 years or more ago or never.
Statistically significant differences are difficult to detect for smaller jurisdictions such as the Australian Capital Territory. Sometimes, even large apparent differences may not be statistically significant. This is particularly the case in breakdowns of small populations because the small sample size means that there is not enough power to identify even large differences as statistically significant.
Chart
Last visit to a dental health professional, adults aged 18 years and over, ACT General Health Survey, 2018-2021
Data
To access the data, select "View source data" link at the bottom of the visualisation. This link will open up a data table that you can download.
Codes and sources
Q. When did you last visit a dental professional about your teeth, dentures or gums?
Less than 12 months ago
1 year to less than 2 years ago
2 years to less than 5 years ago
5 years to less than 10 years ago
10 years ago or more
Never
Don't know
Refused
Don't know and refused responses were excluded from analysis.
10 years ago or more and never have been combined for reporting.
A copy of the ACT General Health Survey questionnaires can be found in Data collections.