Concerns have been raised about the lack of dental services in a small towns across the country.
An example is Wairoa, in northern Hawke's Bay where earlier this year the dental practice was sold.
Photo: 123rf.com
The service that replaced it is only open once a week, for denture check-ups.
Katie Ayers, president of the Dental Association, joined Summer Afternoons to discuss the issue.
She says there are enough dentists in New Zealand to serve the population, but there is a distribution problem.
“Most dentists prefer to work in the bigger cities where they get a larger volume of work and more varied work than they’d get in these small towns.”
Ayers says there are several small-town clinics struggling to recruit dentists.
The Dental Association is calling on the government to increase funding for dentistry for low-income adults whether they are in small towns or cities.
“In the smaller towns the problem is there’s just not enough work to sustain a full-time job. We’re well aware that the costs of running a dentist practice are about 60 percent of what gets taken in so, essentially, the dentists work the first three days of the week to pay their overheads then the next two days are what they take home to feed their family.
“If you’re in a small town where you can’t fill a 40-hour week, it’s often not economically viable to have a service unless there’s some sort of funding available.”
She says that by funding lower income earners to get dental care, they will be able to get it where they live rather than turning up to the nearest hospital in severe pain.
Ayers says that without a local dentist clinic, things are very difficult for small-town residents.
“I’m often hearing of people having to travel an hour and a half to find a dentist and, even so, those dentists in those slightly larger areas might also be under a lot of pressure – they’re often really busy.”
The result of not getting check-ups or dental care, Ayers says, is that people end up with significant infections in hospital, sometimes in intensive care with life threatening complications.
She says a fully-funded dental care system is not affordable or workable and that funding needs to be targeted towards beneficiaries, young people, and lower income earners.
