Capabilities

The Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health (ARCPOH) is a research centre within The University of Adelaide. ARCPOH has a national focus on dental statistics and oral epidemiologic and health services research. ARCPOH, through the AIHW Dental Statistics and Research Unit, monitors oral health among children and adults and explores its determinants. Access to dental care among children and adults, and the identification of inequalities in the frequency and pattern of use of services, or the services received, are studied through population and patient surveys. Time trends in the practice of dentistry, especially productivity and service-mix in private general practice, have been followed for 25 years. These data, along with registration data on dental providers, inform projection models on dentistry's capacity to supply services to the Australian population in an effective and efficient manner.

Research activities are conducted by full-time academic staff, research staff and research only higher degree students, supported by a range of competitive grants and non-competitive contract and consulting research.

ARCPOH also has an emphasis on informing the health and dental community about Australia's oral health and dental care and ways in which both can be improved. This includes the specialised office-based, distance education programs to stimulate and promote preventive dental services in dental practice in Australia and New Zealand conducted by the Colgate Oral Care supported Dental Practice and Education Research Unit (DPERU) and National Oral Health Promotion Clearinghouse within ARCPOH.