How “lifesaving” dental care helped Alice feel like everything was okay

“A lifesaver.” That’s how Alice describes the dental care she’s received from cohealth. 

Three years ago, chemotherapy had caused Alice to lose so much weight that her dentures no longer fitted her. 

“I was being treated for cancer, and I needed to eat,” she says. “But I couldn’t eat, because my dentures were very loose.” 

At the time, Alice was travelling 15 kilometres from her home in Melbourne’s suburban northwest to receive dental care at a service in the inner city. Appointments were often difficult to obtain while she was waiting to recover from chemotherapy treatments, and the taxi commute to the facility was both exhausting and expensive. 

Seeing that Alice was struggling, a dental teacher at the service suggested she contact cohealth, which has provided low-cost or free dental care to more than 14,000 people over the past two years.  

“One day in 2023 he said to me, ‘Alice, why do you come all the way here?’” she recalls. “I said, ‘Because I don’t know where to go.’” 

That was when the teacher told her she might be eligible for dental care at cohealth’s location in the north-western Melbourne suburb of Niddrie, a mere 10 minutes away from Alice’s home.  

“Ten minutes is perfect – it’s nothing,” Alice says.   

It was soon after registering with cohealth that Alice heard from Helen Carter, who leads the team of Client Service Officers in the Niddrie clinic. 

“I get a phone call from this lovely lady,” Alice says, “because my doctor sent them a referral to say I am on the cancer treatment, and I need new dentures.” 

With Helen’s assistance, Alice was able to access the Victorian Denture Scheme (VDS), a government initiative designed to provide low- or no-cost dental care to eligible residents in Victoria. 

“It was a godsend,” Alice says, “because I didn’t know that things (like the VDS) even existed.  

 “So, Helen was a lifesaver. If it wasn’t for her, I would be in a deep hole. I would have cracked it. She gave me the peace of mind that I’m going to be okay.  

“And now, I have beautiful dentures.”