Dentists claim teen agreement full of holes

By LAUREN OWENS
Otumoetai mother-of-three Margie Thomas is wondering who will look after the teeth of hundreds of Bay high school students after she struggled to find a dentist willing to take on her teenager's dental care.
When Mrs Thomas tried to book her 15-year-old daughter in to see her local dentist, she discovered the clinic would no longer take on any new patients under the age of 18.
She called seven dentists in the area who all said the same thing.
As part of the Combined Adolescent Oral Health Service Agreement, dentists can provide regular examinations, fillings and extractions subsidised by the government. But many of the region's dentists no longer take part because the funding is not enough to cover their costs.
"Hundreds of children and parents are going to be in this same situation ... where are these children supposed to go?" Mrs Thomas said.
She has since found a dental centre in Tauranga willing to take on her children but not all parents were able to take their children into town for check-ups.
"These kids have a right to be given free dental care ... the only problem is, nobody is willing to provide it," she said.
There are seven dental centres in Tauranga that accept under-18s as part of the agreement, one of which is in Greerton and another in Welcome Bay.
A further two will accept children if they are new to the area and 10 more will only accept the children of current patients.
David Crum, executive director for the New Zealand Dental Association, said in the past decade more than half the New Zealand dentists in the agreement had pulled out.
"This means that in some areas there is a real shortage of dentists."
Dentists were pulling out for three main reasons: the government payments did not cover the cost of providing the treatment; the contracts were lengthy documents and some dentists did not want the hassle of checking them; and some dentists felt patients deserved better care than could be provided by the agreement.
"This means that the DHB needs to do something about the contracts to attract the dentists. Adjust the fees and have a good business relationship with them. In the end these kids deserve the best care," Mr Crum said.
Another parent, Mark Jensen of Mount Maunganui, said he was surprised when he received a letter from a Mount dental clinic stating his 12-year-old child could only receive treatment if Mr Jensen was a patient also.
He had since found out about a mobile dentist van that visits Mount Maunganui College each year and provided free dental care to all students.
"We'll just keep with the mobile van for the meanwhile," he said.
However, Mount Maunganui is currently the only high school in the Western Bay that has the use of a free mobile dentistry van.
Russell Emerson, the dentist who runs his fulltime practice from the mobile van, contracted by the Bay health board, has been doing so for almost five years.
Last year he saw 400 children at Mount Maunganui College."High school is a great place to catch up with the kids ... a lot of kids don't make use of the free care [outside school]."
According to Mr Emerson, the Bay health board had been impressed with the work and were looking to give further support to the service which also visited schools in Waihi.
Angela Francis, Bay DHB portfolio manager for children and youth, confirmed two more mobile vans would be available at the beginning of December, one for the Eastern Bay and one for the Western Bay.