Mobile dental services should be available where fixed location clinics are not viable or suitable.
Careful oversight and planning are required to provide quality and safe delivery of care with the ability
to provide continuity of care and regular attendance for all patients.
2.1 Mobile Dental Services should be available where fixed location clinics are not viable or suitable.
2.2 Given an increased risk of difficulty for patients in locating records and accessing continued care,
mobile dental services should ensure that adequate information is accessible.
2.3 The standards for safety and quality of care for Mobile Dental Services must be the same as
those for fixed clinics.
2.4 Wherever possible, Mobile Dental Services should make provision for their patients to access
follow up appointments, referrals, and have continuity of care in their local community, and not at
distant locations.
2.5 Hosts of Mobile Dental Services (e.g., schools and residential aged care facilities), and patients
should be made aware of their options to access both private or public Mobile Dental Services.
2.6 Good oral health should be supported by continuity of care and regular attendance with a dental
practitioner within easy access of the patient.
3.1 State and Territory public Mobile Dental Services have been in existence for many years. School
dental services using a Mobile Dental Service model is common in the public sector.
3.2 Mobile dental services provide an option for oral health care where patients may have difficulty
accessing a Dental Practitioner such as aged care residents.
3.3 Private sector Mobile Dental Services have been introduced more recently.
3.4 Mobile Dental Services, if administered appropriately and collaboratively, can play an adjunctive
role in providing enhanced access in areas where there is a lack of fixed service such as schools,
aged care, and rural and remote areas.
4.1 A MOBILE DENTAL SERVICE is any dental service that provides care to patients at locations
other than a fixed dental clinic. This may include the use of a dental van, or portable equipment
that can be taken into a variety of settings to provide access to dental care.
4.2 PATIENT is a person receiving health care or any substitute authorised decision maker for those
who do not have the capacity to make their own decisions.
4.3 DENTAL PRACTITIONER is a person registered by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation
Agency via the Board to provide dental care.
June 2025
June 2030
This Policy Statement is linked to other Policy Statements: 2.1 National Oral Health, 2.3.6 Delivery of Oral
Health Care: Special Groups: Disabled Persons, .3.7 Individuals Unable to Visit Dental Clinics; 2.3.8
Delivery of Oral Healthcare: Special Groups: Infants and Pre-School Children, 2.7.1 Delivery of Oral Health
Care: Facilities: Dental Hospitals, 2.7.2 Delivery of Oral Health Care: Facilities: Medical Hospital Dental
Units, 3.4 Specialisation in Dentistry 5.11 Credentialing for Hospital Practice, 5.15 Consent to Treatment,
5.16 Informed financial Consent, 6.1 Infection Control, 6.11 dental Amalgam Waste and 6.14 Radiation
Safety
