Te Whatu Ora Lakes Community Oral Health service manager Juan Restrepo. Video / Supplied
The Lakes area has “the second worst oral health” in the country but Te Whatu Ora Lakes says the addition of three new mobile dental vans will allow it to reach more children and address a backlog.
The vans, collectively worth $800,000, are each equipped with a single chair and can carry out 30 oral exams or 14 treatments per day.
Last month the Rotorua Daily Post reported the number of young people getting teeth pulled in the district more than halved over the previous five years amid dentists’ fears the reduction reflected a lack of access rather than improved oral health.
Te Whatu Ora Lakes Community Oral Health service manager Juan Restrepo said Covid-19 pandemic restrictions made it difficult to reach children in need and it would take two years to catch up on the backlog.
The three vans would help provide services to rural areas with a special focus on preschools and take the total number of mobile units to nine.
“The vans will give us the flexibility to visit more preschools and kohanga reo,” Restrepo told the Rotorua Daily Post.
“The Lakes area has the second worst oral health in New Zealand. We need to catch up.”
Restrepo said it was almost back to business as usual following the Covid-19 impact but had a deficit of staff and was “doing the best we can” with the resources available.
The six other mobile units already in service are large two-chair units that require a truck, a driver and a large amount of space to park.
The new vans could be driven with a car licence by a staff member and enabled “flexibility” to visit places previously not accessible, Restrepo said.
Te Whatu Ora Lakes Community Oral Health Services team welcomed three new dental vans to its mobile dental fleet. Photo / Stephen Parker
“The new mobile units will be an improvement because we will be able to visit children at kohanga reo and childcare centres we previously could not reach and we are very happy to do that.
“It will also allow us to use the vans for different purposes like oral health education and support for health events run by other areas.”
There are 25,000 children enrolled with Community Oral Health Service but Restrepo said not everyone was aware it exists and encouraged parents to enrol their children with it at age 1.
It focuses on seeing babies and children early to support parents to better look after their children’s teeth and prevent decay. It also had dental therapists that helped educate parents.
“It’s essential children are enrolled as early as possible,” Restrepo said.
“When children are young it’s important to introduce them to the therapist and to the environment to make it more familiar when check-ups start.”
He also said many young people weren’t aware they were entitled to free dental care until they were 18 years old with the service or private dentists registered to provide free treatment to adolescents.
Appointments could also be made for the vans to show up at parents’ children’s schools, Restrepo said.
