Listen as ADA President Dr Chris Sanzaro speaks to ABC Radio's Philip Clark

In a wide-ranging long-form interview with ABC Radio's Philip Clark this week, Dr Chris Sanzaro responds to the fact that the ADA's annual oral health survey found that two-thirds of people only visit the dentist when they have a problem. 

The ADA's position, of course, is that preventative dental health practices, including undertaking regular check-ups with a dentist, are preferable to allowing oral health issues to become big and painful and costly problems. 

But if an issue is left until it becomes a serious problem, Dr Sanzaro explains that there are ways to defray the cost of visiting the dentist through Federal Government programs such as the Child Dental Benefit Schedule:

"Yes, certainly we're aware that people often do put off visits to the dentist. Cost is one of those factors. But in Australia, we've got the Child Dental Benefits Scheme that allows children up to the age of 18 to visit the dentist, usually for no out-of-pocket cost. The majority of dentists bulk bill those. Not everybody, but the majority do, up in the 90-something percent. And that's only got about a 30-odd percent uptake rate, so somewhere between 30% and 40% of people use it."