About us
Funded by the State Government, Dental Health Services is the largest public dental health service provider in Western Australia.
Our vision
Improving the health of Western Australians through access to quality oral health services.
Our mission
Delivering high quality, efficient oral health services to eligible populations across Western Australia through:
- promoting oral health
- providing eligible persons with emergency care for the relief of pain due to oral conditions
- providing general dental care for all enrolled school children
- providing access to general and specialist dental care for financially or geographically disadvantaged persons in the community and other special groups of people
- supporting the training and education of oral health professionals
- contributing to oral health research.
Our services
Dental Health Services (DHS) provides dental services to the public of Western Australia by the following service streams.
School Dental Service
The School Dental Service (SDS) provides free dental care to students:
- aged 5 to 16 or until the end of year 11, whichever comes first
- attending a Department of Education recognised school.
The SDS is delivered statewide through 100 dental therapy centres (DTC), which are co-located with schools.
In addition to these DTCs, 40 mobile DTCs provide care to 150 schools where an onsite clinic is not present.
General Dental Service
General dental clinics operate throughout the metropolitan area and in country Western Australia. They provide subsidised general and emergency dental care for financially and geographically disadvantaged Western Australians:
- aged 17 and over
- who hold a current Health Care or Pension Concession card.
Children aged 0 to 4 whose name appears on their parent’s Health Care or Pension Concession Card, are also eligible to attend a general dental clinic for care.
Special Dental Service
The following dental services are also provided:
- aged care facility – visiting program to screen consenting residents
- prisoners in metropolitan and major rural Department of Corrective Services facilities – mainly in prison based clinics
- eligible Disability Services Commission clients
- visiting services to Royal Perth Hospital and Graylands Hospital.
Dental Subsidy Schemes
DHS also facilitates subsidised general and emergency dental care for financially or geographically disadvantaged persons through the following schemes.
- Country Patients Dental Subsidy Scheme (CPDSS) – the CPDSS complements the care provided through country public dental clinics and usually operates in locations where there is no reasonable access to a Government Dental Clinic.
- Metropolitan Patients Dental Subsidy Scheme (MPDSS) – the MPDSS provides eligible patients in the metropolitan area, who are on a public dental waiting list and have been contacted by DHS to undergo a course of non-urgent subsidised general dental care at participating private dental practitioners.
- Private Orthodontic Subsidy Scheme (POSS) – the POSS enables eligible patients contacted by DHS to receive subsidised specialist orthodontic services in country locations, as all subsidised specialist services are currently only available in Perth.
More information
Dental Health Services