Dentists getting all dressed up
Dental staff could soon be getting assistance from colourful characters to help put nervous children at ease.
The Regional Child Oral Health Service wants to recruit Pip the kiwi, Sam the tuatara and Matilda the morepork to help welcome kids coming in for a dental checkup.
The characters from New Zealand’s wildlife are already a hit with youngsters at Hutt Hospital’s emergency department, where charge nurse Steph Beddis has introduced the concept of distraction therapy for nervous kids.
The hospital department’s Tree Hutt waiting room is covered in bright decals of Northern Rata, Wiki the weta, Poko the kakapo and others. The characters also appear on scrub tops worn by doctors and nurses to help younger kids feel less nervous.
Beddis says all the Tree Hutt characters feature on a website and have their own stories too – for example, Lulu the huhu is adventurous but fittingly, Pip the kiwi is shy.
‘‘Staff can relate these stories to young patients. It gets conversations going and their fears fade into the background.’’
The colourful characters have been so successful at Hutt Hospital, the Regional Child Oral Health Service has considered putting them to use in its clinics.
The service has 13 hubs dotted around the Hutt Valley, Kapi Mana and Wellington. Each hub already features a yellow and black bumblebee ‘‘Bee healthy’’ logo but the service was now looking to raise $26,000 to outfit its 110 dental therapists and assistants with Tree Hutt character gowns as well.
‘‘We have about 74,000 children currently enrolled [in the service],’’ service manager Nicky Smith says.
‘‘They’re enrolled at birth, generally have their first examination by age 2, and they’re under our wing until their year 8 at school.
‘‘Some youngsters are reluctant to poke their head around the clinic door, let alone get into the chair.
‘‘The gowns will make the hubs and mobile clinics seem less of a clinical environment,’’ Smith adds.
‘‘We want their memories of their dental visits to be good, because they’ll pass on those memories and impressions to their children – so it’s a generational thing.’’
The Hutt Hospital Foundation Trust, which raises funds for projects and equipment for patient and family care, is supporting the dental gowns initiative. Contact Steph Beddis at Stephanie.Beddis@hvdhb.org.nz if you would like to assist.