Gap in teen dental care filled by mobile practice
The wheels are in motion to fill a gap in teen oral health.
Teen Dental Mobile is a new, fully equipped dental practice on wheels, visiting high schools throughout Nelson, including Nayland College, Waimea College, Nelson College for Girls, and Nelson College.
Dental therapist and Teen Dental Mobile owner-operator Paula Kinzett said her main aim was to reach the large portion of adolescents who weren’t registered with a dentist in Nelson. ‘‘Thirty per cent of teens in Nelson don’t uptake free dental care.’’
She said once students left year 8 the contract changed to the private sector and ‘‘children just slip through the cracks’’. Adolescents can receive free dental care, through dentists contracted by their DHB, until they turn 18.
Kinzett’s business holds a contract with Nelson Marlborough District Health Board and the schools. Before entering a school, Kinzett emails every parent and the students are free to enrol. She collects registered students from class for their dental checks.
She said her days were fully booked with back-to-back visits, and while this year she would be at each school for six weeks, next year she would do a school per term.
Since launching the mobile unit last month at Nayland College, she said she had noticed many students weren’t brushing their teeth and were consuming sugar-laden drinks.
It was about education, she said, and that bad oral health care could lead to other issues, including heart conditions and behavioural problems.
‘‘Some children who are naughty at school, it may be they’ve got cavities, and they get used to the pain but it’s probably underlying, causing other issues.’’
Kinzett said while some children had challenges making it to appointments, some still had a fear of visiting a dentist. ‘‘I want to build that rapport with the kids. Some of them are really scared to come.
‘‘Dental care should not be frightening, that’s gone, that’s way in the past.
‘‘The needle is a lot of their fear, but that shouldn’t be anything to worry about either because we’ve got a numbing gel so it should really be quite a pleasant experience.’’
Kinzett is registered to care for children up to 18 and do general dentistry, while root canals and tooth extractions are referred to Alex Munro.
Munro Dental dentist Alex Munro said mobile dental services were a valuable tool to take oral health messages to schools and improve access to teens who found getting to a dental clinic too hard.
‘‘Teens are at a stage where they are taking control of their own lives, learning how to be adults, accessing oral health care and advice is part of that.’’
He said when it came to teens looking after their teeth, ‘‘some could do better’’.
‘‘Those in most need are also most unlikely to attend’’ and he said the challenges lied in attitude and perception, access, and compliance with advice. ‘‘Compliance with oral health advice is often in conflict with social and marketing pressures that teens are constantly exposed to. Promotion of acidic drinks, processed foods and anti-health conspiracy theories can undermine positive health messages.’’