This involves exploring partnerships with local communities to ensure primary and community healthcare - including oral health services - is tailored to better respond to people’s needs.
Payinda said while there were some public provisions for free dental care, it was considerably less than what is needed in the community.
“If you are in poverty and can’t afford dental care and don’t have access to dental care then there are few options available to you.”
Payinda said this led to many people ending up in emergency departments in Northland.
“Every day Northland EDs see patients who have been unable to access to dental care due to cost, and of course they come to us with more advanced diseases - even sepsis - and problems that need surgery or admission.”
Payinda said there was a tremendous amount of suffering across the region because public dental care was unavailable for those who need it.
“The cost to society is in pain and suffering. We all understand how painful a toothache is but if you chronically don’t treat it people come in [to ED] in horrendous shape.”
Payinda believed supporting the call for free dental care was logical and that it could be easily achieved.
“We think we are saving money but in reality, it ends up costing society and taxpayers,” he said.
“Not just in treatment costs but also in lost productivity, when we have people with severe head and neck injuries from untreated dental injuries that lead them not to be able to work.”
AUT dental therapist and oral health lecturer Chanae Ihimaera said there were many inequities in the system. It was not developed with everyone in mind.
She said health conversations needed to include dental care because problems in that area could lead to more serious conditions.
“The mouth is the mirror to your overall health. If there is something happening in your mouth, there is something happening in your body as well.”
Ihimaera said many people relied on the regular use of over-the-counter pain relief medication.
“The business side of dentistry is expensive; the materials and equipment are expensive – a chair alone can cost up to $200,000 – and dentists are passing that on to consumers.
“However, the Dental for All campaign has done a lot of research in that space and found that what we are doing now is costing us more than what it would cost to fund dental healthcare.”
Ihimaera said some people resorted to extreme measures such as pulling their teeth out with pliers.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said publicly funded dental care focused on children and adolescents until their 18th birthday and people who struggled to access care because of cost.
“Evidence indicates that oral health status at age 5 predicts oral health status at age 26 and providing support from an early age helps encourage good habits and reduces the likelihood of needing costly dental care in later years.”
The spokesperson said people of any age with medical complications, behavioural issues, or intellectual issues could receive specialist publicly funded dental care via Health NZ Hospital Dental Services.
Health NZ also provides funded relief of pain and infection for people with Community Services Cards, with user part charges.
The Ministry of Social Development provides recoverable and non-recoverable grants for dental treatment for eligible people on low incomes through a special needs dental grant.
About $61 million was provided for non-recoverable grants last year. Those grants are $1000 a year for immediate and essential treatment.
“This programme is resulting in an increase in the accessibility of oral health services for the most vulnerable New Zealanders, including many Māori and Pacific people, and the availability of care contributes to reducing the pressure on hospital care,” the Ministry of Health spokesperson said.
