More dental treatment to require parental consent

A new regime requiring parents to give written consent for work on their children's teeth every time they visit a dental therapist is being expanded.

The system now being introduced in the Palmerston North region means school therapists can examine children's teeth, but x-rays, filling cavities, extracting teeth or removing tartar will require written permission from parents or caregivers.

MidCentral Health's school dental service clinical director Phil Marshall said from this term, a note would be sent home requesting permission to do dental work. It would be a requirement for the 24,000 primary or intermediate-aged children in the MidCentral area but not secondary-aged students.

Mr Marshall said permission requests would be posted directly to parents if notes given to children were not signed and returned.

The Health Ministry has made the change because it does not consider the old consent process to be sufficient. Previously, parents signed consent for treatment when preschool children were first enrolled with the school dental service.

"It will prove that therapists have been through the options and choices and that an informed decision has been made about treatment, by the parent or guardian responsible," Mr Marshall said.

The consent regime was already operating in other parts of New Zealand. Initially there was a drop-off in treatments for the first one or two years, but when the community learned about its responsibilities, treatment levels were back on track within three years, Mr Marshall said.

He said national consistency was needed and that that had not been the case since Crown Health Enterprises were introduced in 1993.

The new regime meant dental therapists would need help with expanding administration work.

Mr Marshall said therapists now spent only 45 to 50 per cent of their time on clinical treatments. The rest was administration.

The new consent process would add an estimated 5 per cent extra administration -- so the plan was to employ clerical help to free up therapists to did more clinical work.

- nzpa