The annual visit to the dentist is becoming a luxury for many Australians, with a new report showing about 40 per cent of the population do not go for regular check-ups.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found another 30 per cent say they simply cannot afford it or have trouble accessing a dentist.

The report shows those who avoid going to the dentist are also three times more likely to have untreated tooth decay or gum disease.

The author of the report, John Spencer, is a professor of social and preventive dentistry at the University of Adelaide.

Professor Spencer says about 30 per cent of Australians only go to the dentist when they have a serious problem.

He says this often means they have advanced stages of tooth decay or gum disease.

"These issues of having put off visiting may be because of financial reasons or because of anxiety, learning that they have fairly significant issues that need to be dealt with, finding that they're not in a comfortable position to actually go ahead with the best treatment options and facing the decision to have teeth extracted which is often a low-cost solution to their problem," he said.

The figures come as no surprise to Dr Shane Friar, the president of the Australian Dental Association.

"It appears the disadvantaged group of the community - and disadvantage is not just from an economic perspective. It can be location, where rural and remote people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, people with disabilities, they are having difficulty accessing dental care," he said.

Tony McBride, the chairman of the Australian Healthcare Reform Alliance, says Australian children have good dental health thanks to school dental programs.

But he says there is a huge gap in dental care when it comes to the adult population.

"If you are wealthy, if you have got a reasonable income, you can pay for dental care," he said.

"If you're very poor you can get public care but have to wait for it.

"There is a massive group in the middle who just can't afford regular, proper dental treatment in the way they should be getting."

In next month's budget the Australian Dental Association is calling on the Government to redirect current funding for public dentistry and target those unable to afford or access oral health care.

Mr McBride says the current funding could be better targeted but says the only long-term solution is a universal scheme such as Medicare for dentistry.

"You don't need to have a particular income level to go and see a GP. We have a universal scheme," he said.

"It is about catching health issues early and dealing with them at a local level and we ought to have exactly the same scheme when it comes to dentistry.

"There is no real reason why we should treat the mouth totally differently from the rest of the body."