KEY POINTS:
New Zealand children's teeth are getting worse, and dentists are blaming too much sugar and the shortage of dental therapists.
In Auckland, the teeth of the average 5-year-old and the average intermediate school pupil were unhealthier last year than in 2004.
The deterioration was worse in the younger children, according to a report by the Auckland Regional Dental Service which was released this week.
Just 59 per cent were free of dental decay, down from 70 per cent. And the average child had 1.67 teeth that were decayed, missing or filled - a 43 per cent deterioration.
National figures are not yet available for last year, but in the previous year they were worse than Auckland's figures, with the average 5-year-old having 2.1 teeth decayed, missing or filled.
The problem is underpinned by the number of pre-schoolers enrolled with the dental service. It stood at just 42 per cent of those eligible in Auckland last year, far lower than the 70 per cent enrolled nationally in the 1980s.
The Auckland report, by Dr John Dalton and the service's principal dental officer Dr Sathananthan Kanagaratnam, suggests reasons for the deterioration include fewer children having their teeth examined - although more preventive treatment is being done - and too few x-rays being taken to help find tooth decay.
"Examinations have come down because of the shortage of therapists over the years," Dr Kanagaratnam said yesterday. "We couldn't see all the kids we are supposed to be doing."
The number of dental therapists nearly halved during the 1990s after the training schools were closed, but the profession is being rehabilitated, with retraining programmes for those who left the job and two university degree courses for new entrants.
Dr Kanagaratnam said the number of therapists was now rising in his service as it took on new graduates and retrained older ones.
The Government has committed an extra $40 million to school dental services over four years, as well as $100 million to build and equip new community/school and mobile clinics in a bid to rebuild dental services for children and adolescents.
Dr Callum Durward, a paediatric dentist at the Auckland District Health Board, said his service was well aware of the deterioration of Auckland children's teeth. "We are getting more and more young kids referred for treatment under general anaesthetic," he said.
Dr Kanagaratnam said water and milk should be the preferred drinks for children and the deterioration in their teeth was partly due to sugary drinks.
"There's lots of fruit drink, Coke and Fanta available cheap on special. Adolescents are getting easy access to these items," he said.
"Some parents are unaware they are bad for their teeth."
