Lakes district oral health in decay

Photo / Mark Mitchell

Rotorua's children have worse dental decay than those in even remote areas of Colombia, according to Lakes District Health Board's community oral health service manager.

Juan Restrepo, also a dentist, said he was disappointed the Rotorua District Council recently voted 7-6 against taking the issue of fluoridating Rotorua's water to a referendum.

"As a clinician and manager of our oral health service, I feel upset and disappointed with what I heard and saw at the council meeting.

"We are making a huge effort to improve the oral health of our population, and some councillors are depriving the community of the opportunity to be correctly informed and make a decision about a public health tool (fluoride) that is proven to make a positive difference to oral health. However this also increases my passion and commitment to our community."

Mr Restrepo said he was amazed so many children here had such bad dental decay compared with Colombia, where he comes from. In Colombia, fluoride is added to salt, so even in quite remote areas, people's teeth are better than here.

He said the reality of oral health for many children in the Lakes area, particularly those children who lived in the most deprived areas, was disturbing.

Despite recent improvement, children in the Lakes district have among the worst oral health of most of the 20 district health boards. Low socio-economic status, poor nutrition and lack of a fluoridated water supply for more than two thirds of the district are all contributors to the poor oral health of Lakes district children and adolescents, he said.

Mr Restrepo said poor oral health could have far reaching effects, in terms of general health and wellbeing, employment, and could contribute to a range of serious conditions including heart disease, diabetes and respiratory diseases.

The Lakes District Health Board now has a new electronic oral health patient management system, which went live last week at a cost of over $490,000.

The implementation of the Titanium system was exciting and was expected to revolutionise the ability of the service to improve delivery and continue to improve oral health outcomes for children and adolescents, Mr Restrepo said.

It's hoped the move towards better co-ordinated care will also see treatment for a number of 'hard to reach" children.

The new system means a goodbye to paper-based records and a manual system of collecting and aggregating patient dental information. The nine school-based dental clinics and six mobile units throughout the Lakes district will also now be linked by computers.

Mr Restrepo said oral health statistics for the Lakes district had improved in the last 12 months but there was still a huge amount of work to do.

The rate of decayed, missing and filled teeth for 5-year-olds in fluoridated water areas of the Lakes district has improved from 2.96 in 2007 to 1.58 in 2013. For non-fluoridated areas, the rate for 5-year-olds of 3.98 in 2007 has moved to 2.82.