Jonny Wilkinson: Time for Government to put money where mouths are

A lot of people simply can’t afford the dentist, or get an appointment. Photo / 123rf

OPINION

If you don’t see them regularly, it will bite you in the butt and kick you in the teeth. It will also bite your bank balance.

The dentist; it’s not a visit you relish, but the longer you leave it, the worse it will be.

The poor state of dental health in New Zealand has been highlighted in a new report, ‘Tooth be told’, commissioned by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.

“In 2020, well over 40 per cent of adults were estimated to have an unmet need for dental care due to cost. Among Māori and Pasifika adults the figure is more than 50 per cent,” the report says. Disabled people also had a high representation in this statistic, but as usual, the data on disability is scarce. The report calls for dental services to be Government-funded, but at the moment, the Government has said - yeah, nah.

My personal experience with the dentist has been somewhat harrowing. Apparently, people with cerebral palsy tend to have worse oral health than most. This is due to a variety of factors that range from not being able to handle a toothbrush or floss, to reflux, to taking medication that is not good for teeth.

One of my big issues when going to a dentist is not being able to keep still. I have a particular memory of going to the dental nurse when I was eight years old. I needed a local anaesthetic for a filling, and did the usual trick I do when I am told to keep still - which is to not keep still - which resulted in jerking my head and gum right into the needle.

Since then, I have done my best to avoid injections in my mouth, instead enduring the pain of the drill. When we lived in Auckland in the 80s, the People Centre, which was run by the Beneficiaries Union, provided an extremely cheap dental service. I went along, even though I had heard stories of their resident dentist, who was an older man from Russia. People told me tales of him sweating and shaking and swearing as he extracted teeth. I went to my appointment with extreme trepidation.

I was, however, most pleasantly surprised. The Russian dentist turned out to have worked in a Russian hospital and specialised in providing dental care for people with cerebral palsy. He was deft at anticipating my involuntary movements and was very understanding and gracious.

I am not the world’s greatest tooth-brusher, so I try and get my teeth regularly scaled, which is a somewhat toe-curling procedure where they use that buzzing spike to descale your teeth. While writing this, I realised that I haven’t actually been in 2 years. Note to self: make an appointment.

A friend went to get an assessment from her dentist a while ago. Last week, she remembered she had a follow-up appointment. Apparently, she innocently hopped into the dental chair, and the dentist announced that he would be extracting two teeth.

“WHAT?” she exclaimed.

“Yes, we discussed this, remember?” he replied.

“Whereabouts?” she asked, silently panicking that they might be in the front of her mouth, and quickly imagining scenarios in which she could hide her mouth - facemasks, a burqa, Zoom. Luckily, they were in the back. After a week-and-a-half on a soft food diet and an eye-watering bill, she has recovered.

As frightening as they can be, just be glad if you can afford to access these services. As the report pointed out, a lot of people simply can’t afford the dentist, or get an appointment.

I don’t know why our health system treats oral health differently to all the other services, which are heavily subsidised or free. I think it is time for the Government to put money where the mouths are.

Jonny Wilkinson is the CEO of Tiaho Trust - Disability A Matter of Perception, a Whangarei-based disability advocacy organisation.