What is the federal budget’s impact on dental care in Alberta?

The 2023 federal budget includes $13 billion to implement the Canadian Dental Care Plan, more than double what some expected.

It’s welcome news to Albertans who face some of the highest dental costs in Canada, but it’s not clear how much it will actually help.

However, the president of the Alberta Dental Association and College, Dr. Bruce Yaholnitsky, says they haven’t really got all the details on this program.

“The major concerns … with most of our country right now. We have a manpower shortage in the auxiliaries. We don’t want to affect third-party dental plans,” said Yaholnitsky.

The additional funding from the budget is aimed at alleviating the costs for low-income families.

“I hope it really helps the people who need it the most, as those are underserved populations,” he said.

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Yaholnitsky says oral health care is part of general health care and says that reducing these issues will improve the health of the whole population.

“With better oral health care, number one, the number of emergency visits by patients or by people who have dental problems will be reduced significantly,” Yaholnitsky said.

“We’ll be reducing, hopefully, all our times for rampage children’s decay and dentistry, and we will improve the general health pair it all diseases and inflammatory diseases that affect the whole body.”

The government will begin rolling out a dental care plan for up to nine million uninsured Canadians with family income of less than $90,000 annually by the end of 2023.

It will have open eligibility for people who are under 18 years old, seniors, and people with disabilities.

The plan is to expand that eligibility to anyone who meets the household income requirements by 2025.