Community dental health clinic first step in Government scheme

An agreement between Silverdale School and Waitemata District Health Board signed on August 9 has paved the way for a new community oral health clinic – the only one of its type in Rodney.

Final sign off for the proposed clinic by the Health Board and Ministry of Health is scheduled to take place this month.

The proposed clinic is part of a national, $13 million dollar scheme that will replace existing school dental clinics with a combination of community clinics and mobile services by the end of 2012.

Under the scheme, the Rodney region will be serviced by the Silverdale ‘fixed’ clinic as well as five mobile units (a mix of one-chair diagnostic and two-chair full treatment units) that will travel between schools. The diagnostic units will see children at their schools and do checks and preventative work such as fissure sealants, cleaning and x-rays. Full treatment units carry out more in-depth procedures, such as fillings.

Waitemata District Health Board dental manager Belinda Tafua says Silverdale School was chosen because Government’s criteria for the clinic included that it be open for 80 percent of the year and this was not possible in other locations. The clinic will be owned and maintained by the Health Board, not the Ministry of Education, which is responsible for existing school clinics.

Services on the Hibiscus Coast will centre on the two-chair Silverdale clinic, staffed by two dental therapists and one dental assistant. Together with a mobile diagnostic unit, this will cater for around 4000 children up to Year 8 from Silverdale, Red Beach and Orewa. A full treatment mobile unit will serve Whangaparaoa Peninsula.

A clinic in Glenfield Intermediate School on the North Shore, due for completion by the end of this year, will be the closest for Rodney families whose children require more complex procedures involving ‘conscious sedation’ (using nitrous oxide). Currently Rodney families have to travel to Greenlane, Auckland for these procedures.

Mrs Tafua says the Health Board will soon begin working with Rodney schools to discuss the future of their on-site clinics.

“Many existing clinics in NZ are 40 or 50 years old and no longer support modern dentistry,” Mrs Tafua says. “Lack of funding has seen many of them get very rundown.”

The new facilities will feature the latest equipment and eventually introduce digital radiography in place of x-rays. The Health Board says the clinics may also be open some evenings and Saturdays to provide flexibility for families.

“There will be fewer clinics, but more staffed dental chairs, and therefore greater access to care. School dental clinics are only open for an average of 60 days per year, with therapists moving on to other schools as they finish working through the rolls.”

Mrs Tafua says that the plans being put in place in Rodney reflect information gathered during a consultation process that took place in 2008.

The Health Board hopes construction of the clinic at Silverdale School can start before Christmas and be completed around March/April next year.

Image: From left, Waitemata DHB oral health project manager Rod Harvey, Silverdale Primary School principal Viv Collins and the school’s Board chair Alison Gilchrist.