Authorities need to work on dental health issues

By TOM CLARKE

A high level of dental decay exists in some groups of New Zealand children, says the new executive director of the Dental Association, Dr Robin Whyman.

The standard of dental health for most New Zealand children is good, he says - about half have little or no decay.

But a smaller proportion of the population have high levels of decay, mainly caused by feeding and parenting practices when children are young.

"There are higher disease levels and more dental problems in groups of the population with a lower socio-economic status and that is a major problem," he says.

"It's not always related to socio-economic status - sometimes it's related to lifestyle and awareness within the family of dental health issues."

As the population ages, Dr Whyman says there are also increasing problems in maintaining the dental health of elderly people who have retained their own teeth.

The dental profession and New Zealand needs to consider "how we provide care to people who have maintained their dental health throughout their lives - maybe with some major help from their dentist," he says. "The issue is how do you maintain that as somebody ages and becomes more frail and perhaps less able to get to the dentist?"

Dr Whyman says the dental profession and other health providers such as health promotion and public health services, need to work together to ensure that dental health becomes a priority.

Meanwhile, the association has successfully lobbied the Government for a substantial reduction in dental training fees. From the beginning of this year the annual fee came down from about $22,000 a year to just under $10,000. Under the old fee structure graduates were leaving university with a debt of about $100,000.

"The problem is that left graduating dentists with a very high level of debt at the start of their practising life and that will inevitably have an effect on the cost of dentistry in New Zealand," Dr Whyman says.

He holds a bachelor of dental surgery and a master of community dentistry from Otago University. He is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons, a member of the Hospital Dental Surgeons Association and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Paediatric Dentistry.

Before taking up his new post he was regional director, dental services, at Capital Coast Health and Hutt Valley Health