Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Northland dentists expect backlog of patients as routine dental care resumes under level 2

By Julia Czerwonatis
Reporter for the Northern Advocate·Northern Advocate·
10 May, 2020 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Dr Amanda Johnston, president of the Northland branch of the New Zealand Dental Association, says methods for treating patients under level 3 and 4 weren't ideal. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Dr Amanda Johnston, president of the Northland branch of the New Zealand Dental Association, says methods for treating patients under level 3 and 4 weren't ideal. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Dentists across Northland expect a backlog of patients once New Zealand moves into alert level 2 as they were only able to do emergency procedures for the past month and a half.

Dr Amanda Johnston, president of the Northland branch of the New Zealand Dental Association and general dental practitioner in Whangārei, said the dental care they were able to offer under levels 4 and 3 was less than ideal and dentists were keen to reopen.

"In alert level 4 and 3 dentists were restricted to emergency and urgent care. We were encouraged to keep patients at home, speak to them by phone or email, and figure out if we could manage their dental situation using prescription or advice over the phone – which is not an ideal way of treating dental issues," Johnston explained.

Getting people to take photographs of their teeth and send them to their dentist was one of the makeshift methods practitioners used to assess their patients.

"We would also have a good chat with them and ask them if it's uncomfortable, is it stopping you eating or sleeping, is your face or mouth swollen – those are the things that make it an emergency."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Everything else had to be put off until level 2.

She estimated that about six practices across Northland were routinely seeing patients for "really basic care" and roughly the same number were answering patients' queries and doing telephone triage.

The rest of the practices were closed.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"If we had to provide any emergency care, we needed extensive PPE [personal protective equipment], which was very difficult to access."

Johnston expects a backlog of patients after routine dental care wasn't possible under level 3 and 4. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Johnston expects a backlog of patients after routine dental care wasn't possible under level 3 and 4. Photo / Michael Cunningham

READ MORE:
• Preliminary results: New faces for Northland DHB, including Māori health advocate
• Covid-19: Northland frontline health care staff well prepared
• Covid-19 coronavirus: Northland DHB urges Kaikohe New World shoppers to keep eye on their health
• Covid-19 coronavirus: Northland DHB declines to release case location details

Discover more

Insufficient rain in winter will spell trouble in Northland

06 May 05:00 PM

Level 2 a lifeline for Northland businesses

07 May 05:00 PM

Cyclist attacked by dog on Twin Coast trail, needs 14 stitches

07 May 09:00 PM
New Zealand

'Haunted for life': Mum of baby girl tells of carjacking nightmare

07 May 05:00 PM

Even before Covid-19 arrived in New Zealand dentists were aware of a worldwide PPE shortage, according to Johnston.

"We alerted the Ministry of Health to the fact that we were being limited to the amount of masks and gloves [we] might be able to order in the future."

She said because the numbers of Covid-19 patients were so far lower than anticipated, PPE stock was still available, however, she hoped the supply issue wouldn't drag into alert level 2 and beyond.

Dentists routinely use a lot of PPE and are trained excessively in cross-infection control.

Johnston hopes that for routine care under level 2, standard PPE requirements would be enough.

As far as business is concerned, it's been a massive hit for dentists, who have earned little income during the lockdown.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Kerikeri Dental Centre has been inundated with patients since the lockdown. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Kerikeri Dental Centre has been inundated with patients since the lockdown. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Phil Worsley, general manager of New Zealand dental group Lumino, pointed out that dentists were not offering emergency services to make money.

"We need to offer the service to keep people safe – that's why we're doing it. We're only manning the practices when there are patients.

"But yes, we're missing our revenue completely. There's obviously staff who are unable to work, and we are pretty desperate to get back to work under level 2."

With several surgeries, Lumino's Kerikeri Dental Centre is one of the larger Lumino practices out of seven in Northland. Only two surgeries are operational during lockdown level 4 and 3.

Worsley said dentist Dr Simon Leith extended the opening hours to Saturday because of the high demand for emergency treatment.

Leith was the only dentist of the Kerikeri practice working, together with two dental assistants – no hygienists, no receptionist or any other staff, but because of demand another was added in the past weeks.

"The key thing for us was the health and safety of our patients and staff," Worsley said.

That included managing the flow of people so there was no contact and overlaps between patients, stringent infection controls and cleaning protocols, and taking no walk-in patients.

Worsley said only staff who volunteered to work, were safe and well, and were able to keep their families safe, had been working throughout the lockdown.

Looking at the existing draft guidelines from the Dental Council, Worsley said it looked as though dentists should be able to do most of their regular procedures again "but we are waiting for those to be finalised".

Dental care under level 2 would include routine check-ups, fillings and hygienist appointments.

"We're busy planning to start up under level 2 and contacting patients to bring them back into practices as soon as we can."

Worsley said there was a big need for people to get their dental treatment. He anticipates an uplift of patients for the first few weeks but couldn't say what would come after that.

‌
‌
In the footer
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate

'Absolute tragedy': 21yo drove drunk and crashed into tree, killing younger brother

08 Jul 06:00 AM
Northern Advocate

Signal concerns: Power, transmission quality issues disrupt Freeview service

08 Jul 05:06 AM
Northern Advocate

Man who knocked officer unconscious fails to reduce prison sentence

08 Jul 02:46 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

'Absolute tragedy': 21yo drove drunk and crashed into tree, killing younger brother

'Absolute tragedy': 21yo drove drunk and crashed into tree, killing younger brother

08 Jul 06:00 AM

'The consequences are with you for the rest of your life', a judge told Rameka Rewiti.

Signal concerns: Power, transmission quality issues disrupt Freeview service

Signal concerns: Power, transmission quality issues disrupt Freeview service

08 Jul 05:06 AM
Man who knocked officer unconscious fails to reduce prison sentence

Man who knocked officer unconscious fails to reduce prison sentence

08 Jul 02:46 AM
Police arrest three, seize shotgun and rifles following dirt biker dispute

Police arrest three, seize shotgun and rifles following dirt biker dispute

08 Jul 12:09 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP