This presentation will address the current of occupational distribution in the provision of oral health services and possible future senarios for multidisciplinary oral health teams. Factors influencing the distribution in the future, including trends in oral health status, inequalities in access to care, population demographics, labour force projections and the relationship between oral health and general health will be briefly discussed and the associated implications for models of service delivery and health promotion for oral health outlined. The development of oral health service delivery from a cottage industry to oral health teams, to health teams associated with intersectoral collaboration will be presented. Intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary models for provision of oral health care for a variety of settings will be discussed. Some overseas and local trends in ways of practising will be examined and some options for the future suggested.

KF Roberts-Thomson*

Presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the IADR (ANZ Division), 28 September – 1 October 2003, Melbourne, Australia

Note: * indicates presenter