Since losing her job she had been on a sickness benefit and was experiencing significant financial hardship, ERA member Rachel Larmer said.
In her determination of Ms Wylie's interim reinstatement application, she mentioned the limited, incomplete and untested evidence before the authority.
Dental therapy was the only occupation in which Ms Wylie had skills and experience.
"It has been her entire working life.''
And because it was such a specialised occupation, those skills were not readily transferable, said Ms Larmer.
Ms Wylie's lengthy service, her age and her likely inability to get another job with similar pay all meant that there was "significant value" to her in an ongoing relationship with the Health Board. It was the major employer of dental therapists in the Rotorua region.
There were fundamental conflicts in the evidence concerning the complaint, which covered "the alleged requirement to use topical anaesthetic, the disputed speed at which Ms Wylie injected the child with local anaesthetic, and her alleged lack of concern for the child".
The Health Board told the authority that, after dismissing the dental therapist, it discovered other alleged serious misconduct.
That included - as yet uninvestigated - criticism of her clinical practice and concern about extraction of a tooth from a four-year-old boy.
His mother had not complained, and nor did the seven-year-old's parents in the April complaint which triggered Ms Wylie's dismissal.
The Board did not want her reinstated, saying its trust and confidence in her had been eroded and its reputation would be damaged if Ms Wylie was reinstated.
"I consider that speculative," said Ms Larmer.
Ms Wylie declined to comment when contacted by APNZ, other than to say she intended to fight the allegations.