Robin Whyman: New Zealand Dental Association Spokesperson on the growing child dental waitlist

More than half of the children on the waiting list for dental surgery have been waiting more than four months.

Data from Health New Zealand shows that as of March, there were 5564 young people aged 14 and under on the waitlist, with 2942 waiting more than 120 days.

The overall waitlist has grown by about 1500 children in two years. 

New Zealand Dental Association Spokesperson Robin Whyman talks to Mike Hosking about the issue. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New data around dental health. Past two years, an extra
fifteen hundred kids under fourteen have been added to our
witless for dental surgery. Now that's nearly three thousand have
been waiting more than one hundred and twenty days. Apparently.
Robin Wyman's at the New Zealand Dental Association and as
with us, Robin morning to you morning MIKEE. Is the
school system not working?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
The school or what used to be called the school
dental service, the community oral health service is in some difficulty.
It is short of therapists, that's dental therapists and oral
health therapists. They're the key clinician you need to deliver
that service and so with the work force shortage, they
are very behind in terms of seeing our pre and

(00:41):
primary school children.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Is this a geography problem? There are certain areas we
can point to and know that this is where the
issues are.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
It is a nationwide problem, but there are pockets where
the numbers have been very very behind. To Auckland and
Waikato we know from the data are more behind than many.
But actually a nationwide problem really.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
And I emphasize the word surgery. So what is it
you're getting done for surgery apart from extraction.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
So young children who would be going to hospitals or
theaters across the country to have their teeth attended to,
a lot of the work would be dental extractions because
the teeth are past the point where we can repair them.
But we also do a lot of fillings, a lot
of repairing those teeth so we can hold onto them,
and they are important to hang on to where we
can because they help the developing permanent teeth.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Strikes me as one of those things that you can
potentially address to it, agree if you got hold of
the parents and we started off doing it at home.
So in other words, you know, diet you may or
may not get ahead on, but dentistry is sort of
easily sold to the kid brushes their teeth on a
regular basis.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Isn't it no doubt that rutbrushing teeth with fluoridated toothpaste
twice a day. That's our absolute recommendation from the association
is an important part of this. And so yes, early
contact with parents and understanding of what needs to be
done to look after dental health is a very important
part of preventing this disease.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Is that being done clearly not.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Obviously, it's so difficult. We have not just the therapist
delivering that service. Plunket and the early childhood providers do
provide that level of support and help to our young children,
but with workforce shortages, absolutely those contacts are not as
frequent as they should be.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Is anyone fixing this? Dentistry has always been a problem,
hasn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, this is slightly different to the wider dentistry issues
that we talk about because this is the publicly funded
part of the service and both in the community oral
health service and then what we're doing in the hospitals.
There is some glimmer of understanding in the Health New
Zealand workforce plans. So if you look at the twenty
twenty three and twenty twenty four plans, they do talk

(02:51):
about the shortage they have a viral health therapists. It's
around about twenty percent in the two thousand and three
plane twenty three plan. With this is it's not joined up, Mike.
They have Health New Zealand saying they have shortages, but
you've got to then be working across into the tertiary
education sector with them being supported with additional funding and

(03:12):
a joined up plan so we actually train more therapists
and more dentists, so it's.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Not it's not coordinated. Who would have Who would have
thought that? Appreciate it Robin Robin wym in New Zealand
Dental Association.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
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