Oral health service performance

Queensland Health provides free dental care to eligible patients. This page reports the performance of this HHS including waitlists and treatment times. HHS performance is reported as the collective performance of the clinics in each HHS.

Public oral health services

Queensland Health offers free dental care to eligible patients at community, school and mobile dental clinics. To read more about accessing these services visit the public dental services page.

General care waiting list

The general care waiting list records those patients who require a routine dental check-up. Dental treatment may include preventive care, scaling and cleaning, fillings, extractions and dentures.

Commencement of general care within two years of being placed on the list is desirable.

Clinical assessment waiting list

The clinical assessment waiting list records those patients who need a brief review by a dental practitioner to determine what dental treatment is required and which waiting list is appropriate for the patient's clinical needs.

Dental review within one month of being added to the clinical assessment waiting list is desirable.

Priority care waiting list

The oral health priority waiting list records those patients who require priority, specialised or specialist dental care. Patients are allocated to a waiting list and assigned an urgency category following assessment by a dental practitioner.

The priority categories have the following clinically recommended timeframes:

  • Category 1: treatment desirable within 1 month
  • Category 2: treatment desirable within 3 months
  • Category 3: treatment desirable within 12 months

General anaesthetic waiting list

The general anaesthetic waiting list is for patients who require general or specialist dental care under general anaesthetic in a hospital operating theatre. General anaesthetic procedures are provided by the HHS across a number of locations, rather than in a specific facility, and as such are reported at a HHS level. Patients are allocated to a waiting list within a HHS and assigned an urgency category following assessment by a dental practitioner.

The priority categories have the following clinically recommended timeframes:

  • Category 1: treatment desirable within 1 month
  • Category 2: treatment desirable within 3 months
  • Category 3: treatment desirable within 12 months

View HHS performance by area of care

To read more about the performance of this HHS, click the links below or scroll down to read reporting about the activity at this HHS.

Last updated: August 2024