Treating impoverished First Nations patients is a surprisingly lucrative enterprise for the country’s dentists, with the six highest-billing practitioners receiving more than $1-million a year from Health Canada, according to government figures the National Post obtained.
Subtracting the 60% of dental billings typically spent on staff salaries and other overhead, the top 25 billers would earn personal income from work on aboriginal patients of about $200,000 to $640,000 a year, the Health Canada statistics suggest. The average full-time dentist in Canada makes $142,000 a year.
The figures, released under the Access to Information Act, come as the cost of dental care for aboriginals — who suffer from sky-high rates of dental decay — climbs swiftly, with spending on the program jumping more than 9% per capita in 2009-10.