$1m plan to get teens in dentist chair

By ELIZABETH BINNING

Thousands of young people are risking costly bills and unnecessary pain by not taking advantage of free visits to the dentist as teenagers.

In the Waikato alone fewer than half of the region's 26,000 teenagers visit the dentist regularly, despite oral healthcare being free until the age of 18.

With similar statistics recorded in other centres, the Ministry of Health is investing $1 million in the promotion of dental care for young people.

The ministry's health services manager, Deborah Woodley, said the key problem was that a lot of young people were lost from the system when they left primary and intermediate school.

"What we are wanting to do is have some concentrated efforts on the uptake of the service in that age group."

The $1 million will be split four ways, with $250,000 each for Auckland north, the Midland region, Wellington north and the South Island, and then passed on to those regions' district health boards.

In the Waikato-Midland area - which covers roughly the middle of the North Island, including Gisborne - plans have already been made on how to spend the money.

A regional co-ordinator will visit schools, liaise between the Dental Association and the health board, and recruit dentists on to a controversial new contract.

Mike Burns, the practice manager for Hamilton's Five Cross Roads Dental Centre, supports the move, saying it is difficult to get teenagers to visit a dentist.

"People traditionally don't race into the dentist on a regular basis. When you are a kid and healthy you don't really think about prevention."

When regular care is abandoned, minor problems often go undetected and young adults end up with expensive bills for problems that could have been prevented and would have cost nothing.

But Graham Sue, also of Hamilton, is sceptical about whether the scheme will work.

"It's about apathy. They [young people] don't care. It's as simple as that."

Dr Sue, who works at Northcare Dental Centre, said teenagers who have visited his clinic are sent recall notices, but these are often ignored and he does not actively seek new teenage clients.

"A lot of the kids need a lot more than what the Government funds us for."

The ministry tried to address the issue of funding of adolescent care when it offered dentists a new contract last year.

By December, only 425 of NZ's 900 dentists had signed, with many saying the contract did little to address the problem.

nzherald.co.nz/health