Budget 2006: $40m top-up good news for children's teeth

Treating youngsters' teeth has won a $40.8 million top-up, to coincide with a $100 million reconstruction of the school dental service already being planned.

Pre-schoolers' teeth are deteriorating, according to the latest national statistics, and the School Dental Service and the adolescents' dental treatment scheme are said to be in crisis.

Auckland dental therapist Rae Mason, who works at the Ponsonby and Bayfield primary schools' clinics, said the extra funding over four years would "absolutely" benefit children and their teeth.

"I have been a dental therapist for 28 years so this is the best news I've had in ages."

At present many children face delays for check-ups at dental clinics and at hospitals if they need more serious work done.

Less than 40 per cent of eligible pre-schoolers are enrolled in the service and less than 60 per cent of adolescents make use of state-paid treatment by dentists.

Many school dental clinics and their equipment are outdated and need to be replaced.

The number of dental therapists - who staff the School Dental Service - halved in two decades, but the Government hopes to rescue it by restarting training schemes at two universities.

It now expects this to flow into increasing numbers of working therapists, so is providing extra funding for health boards to pay them.

"We're now building the workforce," Health Minister Pete Hodgson said yesterday. "We now need to pay them and give them upgraded facilities."

The rebuilding work would begin this year.

The Government announced the rebuilding plan last year. Services would continue to be delivered from schools in many instances, community clinics would be built and more mobile services developed.

Dr Sathananthan Kanagaratnam, president of the School and Community Dental Services Society, said the reinvigoration of dental services for young people was long overdue and would have great health benefits.