Dentists return to contracts for kids

Dentists are treating more school-aged children despite only earning about two-thirds of what they can charge private patients as adult customer numbers dry up.

Parents in recent years have struggled to find dentists who would take on their children as many had opted out of the contract with their district health board to treat adolescents under government-funded benefits.

Increasing numbers of dentists had not renewed year-long contracts in favour of seeing more private patients, who pay full prices.

Others would only agree to take on under-18s if their parents were already patients of the practice.

Midland region monitoring dental officer Bill Keighley said the recession had prompted dentists to pick up the contracts again.

"Dentists are suffering from the recession the same as everybody else and therefore they're looking for more security with the government contracts so they're starting to come back."

He said about 170 of 250 dentists held the contracts in the midland region.

Auckland principal dental officer John Dalton said new dentists setting up practices had usually always picked up the government contract while they built up a client base, but several "well-established" Auckland dentists had now also gone back to them.

He said the government rates were looked at each year and slowly rising.

"But they're nowhere near private rates. My guess is they're about 60 per cent in Auckland."

Dentists can sign up to the year-long contracts in the 12 and under, and 13-18 age groups.

A spokeswoman for the New Zealand Dental Association said the payment for dentists treating school students was at the discretion of the local DHB.

However, one Bay of Plenty dental practice told the Herald they were struggling with the amount of school children needing dental care but unable to get it because not enough local practices took them on.

"We've had to restrict it to only taking school-aged children belonging to our current adult patients ... and then you set yourself up for all sorts of people that get really irate and say 'Well I don't have a dentist of my own' and they kind of make it your problem that they don't. Or [they say] 'I've just moved into town'. What are you supposed to do?"