There have been 8302 presentations to the state's emergency departments over the past six years for teeth, gum and jaw issues, a Senate committee has heard. The committee visited Launceston on Thursday as part of its inquiry into the provision and accessibility of dental health services. Health Department secretary Kathrine Morgan-Wicks said of the emergency department presentations over the past six years, 870 were admitted to hospital and about 500 were ambulance arrivals. The committee heard there were 15,000 Tasmanians on a waiting list for dental care and between 1000 to 2000 people were removed each year after contact from the department. The main reasons for removal were that they did not respond to the contact or because they no longer required care. Submissions to the inquiry have centred on workforce shortages in dentistry in regional parts of the country. University of Tasmania head of school of health services, Nuala Byrne, told the committee dentistry training was not offered in the state as it was too expensive to do so. She said the university worked with other Australian universities to enable clinical placements in Tasmania. "The opportunity to pathway students to mainland universities, but then adequately support them to come back to be able to do their placements in Tasmania, is an incredibly important strategy for us," Professor Byrne said. She said for that to happen, appropriate clinical supervision was required, and with that, enhanced funding. Centre for Rural Health director Lisa Dalton said placements were a big investment for a workforce that was already under duress. Oral Health Services Tasmania clinical director Ioan Jones said Tasmania provided the best final year placement program in the country. "We will have 40 dental students come to Tasmania during this calendar year," he said. "Over the past 13 years I've been here, I've seen the dentist demographic change in Tasmania and that's been directly influenced by our student replacement program." Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: