New Zealand Dental Association calls for urgent improvements to school dental services

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The head of the New Zealand Dental Association has called for urgent improvements to be made to school dental services.

Talking at the annual conference recently, the president of the association, Dr Bill O’Connor, said that the current school system was failing children and leaving them vulnerable to disease. According to the organisation, there are currently more than 95,000 children waiting for routine dental appointments, and last year, 29,000 children had teeth extracted. Figures also suggest that more than 7,000 extractions were carried out under general anaesthetic. The statistics equate to 120 children having a tooth extracted every day.

Dr O’Connor claims that extraction rates are high because school dental services are not up to scratch. Children should be seeing a dentist on a regular basis from an early age, and there are currently thousands waiting for routine checks, which could prevent decay.

Children in pre-school and primary school should have access to free dental care up to year 8, but Dr O’Connor believes that the service in schools in falling short, causing many pupils to miss out on regular dental checks. The association has labelled the situation “appalling”, and called for the government to do more to improve services and protect children, especially those from deprived areas.

Health minister, David Clark, admitted that there was a history of “unmet need in dental care” in New Zealand, but insisted that now was not the right time to carry out a review of school services.

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