Consumer spending and insights
Reports from two major banks provide some interesting insights into dental spending and visiting behaviours.
Two of Australia’s major banks – CommBank and NAB – regularly publish reports on health sector spending that provide some interesting insights for the dental industry.
The CommBank Health Insights Report comes from de-identified healthcare transaction data from around 7 million Australians, weighted to then represent the broader population. The NAB Health Insights Report draws on HICAPS data and other sources to analyse the health sector.
Given the strong private sector element to dentistry, these reports provide useful information on broad trends that are shaping the industry that sit alongside other data sources.
According to CommBank, dental spending for the past 12 months was $5.6 billion, up 5.4% from the previous year, while the number of patients and frequency of visits remained virtually unchanged. This means the increase was driven by an increased spend per visit.
It’s worth noting here that this figure is significantly different to the total dental expenditure reported by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, which was $13.2 billion in 2023-24, comprising $8 billion in individual out-of-pocket spending and $2.6 billion in private health insurance rebates.
CommBank noted that metropolitan areas in NSW (4%), Victoria (3.6%) and South Australia (4.4%) had a lower growth in dental spending, while metropolitan Queensland (6.7%), Tasmania (10.4%) and Western Australia (8%) had a greater increase. Regional areas also generally had a greater than average increase – NSW 6.5%, Queensland 7.9%, Tasmania 8.4% and Western Australia 9.3%.
Spending growth on medical specialists (7.1%), pharmacies (10%) and allied health (6.7%) all outstripped the growth on spending on dental care. This perhaps suggests a subtle shift in priorities for patients as they navigate an uncertain period of financial instability and increased cost-of-living pressures.
The NAB report focuses more on patient experiences with comparisons to other health professions. It highlights an increase in the proportion of Australians visiting a dentist – up from 50% in 2024 to 55% in 2025 – but notes that 13% have note visited in more than 5 years. Dental visits were the most commonly missed of all health practitioner visits.
Cost continues to the main driver for not visiting the dentist, cited as the main reason for 6 in 10 people who had not visited in over a year. There was a strong link between patient dissatisfaction and ‘value for money’. Interestingly patients wanted to see more transparency around fees, and wanted better value, not simply lower prices. Dentists rated the second lowest in terms of value for money (54%) compared with other health practitioners including optometrists (71%), pharmacists (66%), medical specialists (62%) and general practitioners (60%).
And although cost and value were the key drivers of avoidance, anxiety and fear are a factor for 1 in 5 patients and embarrassment for 1 in 10 patients.
One of the consequences of this perceived lack of value was the much higher rates that patients switch practitioners – around 10% of patients had switched dentists in the past 2-3 years because they were dissatisfied in some way. This aligns with Ahpra notification data where we see higher rates of patient complaints against dental practitioners, and particularly in areas including billing and informed consent.
These reports provide an interesting snapshot of consumer sentiment and habits that help shape visiting patterns. They highlight the common theme that Australians are divided when it comes to dental care and oral health. Whilst there continues to be strong growth in dental practice economic activity, there are still many Australians who struggle to access care, and although the reasons for this are complex and multifactorial, the consequences for many are also significant.
Dental funding in this week’s budget is just tinkering around the edges. We need so much more
Read my piece in The Conversation this week about the the Federal Budget and implications for dental health.
