Smiles as district gets first mobile dental clinics

A new multi-million dollar community facility is being eyed by Wairarapa District Health Board as the hub for two new state-of-the-art mobile dental clinics.
Board chairman Bob Francis revealed the proposal yesterday morning, at a blessing of the first of the two towable $400,000 units.
The one-storey building, which would be located near the DHB's Blair Street entrance, would house a number of units such as Public Health, Focus and Choice Health.
The Ministry of Health has earmarked just under $500,000 for the project and is hoped to approve it within the month.
Plans for a second new building - a clinical support centre estimated at $3.5 million - will meanwhile sit idle until the community facility project is up and running.
Until that facility is built, the DHB will use Masterton Intermediate School as the hub for the dental clinics, which will be the first of their kind on the road in New Zealand.
The second mobile is only a few weeks away. In time there will be 94 of these units throughout the country.
At yesterday's blessing Associate Minister of Health Peter Dunne said the clinics were designed to cut costs and increase access to oral health services by servicing more children in more areas.
"They will enable more young people to have more regular access to dental check ups and to better diagnostic and treatment tools and equipment."
The patient experience will be much improved in this purpose built modern clinic. It has been designed with children and their comfort in mind.
There is a television in the waiting room and a CD player for stories and piped music in the clinic.
Patient chairs are child-sized and safety considerations have been taken into account so children can't reach or touch things they shouldn't.
The clinic is thermostatically designed for the comfort of children and therapists and the design uses the latest specs for cross infection control.
Wairarapa DHB oral health clinical team leader Lynette Field had so much drive in the planning and creation of the clinics that they had been jokingly dubbed the "Field Design".
"I am so thrilled our design is now reality. This is the culmination of three years work and is an innovative and exciting project which will shape school dental services throughout the country," Mrs Field said.
"Our oral health team is looking forward to using the new facility knowing that it has been designed with their needs in mind and as they move from location to location they will know the equipment they're using is the same wherever they work.
"It is appropriate that Wairarapa gets the first mobile because Wairarapa DHB was the first DHB to have its business case accepted for the redevelopment of oral health services following a national survey of dental facilities that showed many were unable to meet modern building standards."
Local firm, Oldfield Group, will be moving the mobiles from site to site.
The first one will go to Masterton Intermediate School and the second, when it arrives, will go to Carterton. They will initially deliver oral health care to preschoolers and children on school grounds.