Mobile Dental Clinic arrives at Somerset Crescent School

09/03/2010 | Mobile Dental Clinic at Somerset Crescent School

The first single mobile dental clinic arrived at Somerset Crescent School yesterday morning.

Reverand Kahu Durie blessed the clinic which received a warm welcome from Somerset Crescent students and staff.

Dental Therapist Jenny Irving and Dental Assistant Sue Jarrett will begin seeing students from 9 March 2010.

Somerset Crescent School has 180 students who will each be seen in the dental clinic. Fifty percent of the school is made up of Maori students and 30 percent is made up of Pacific Island students - a great start to reaching MDHB’s target of improving Maori and Pacific peoples’ oral health status.

Principal Robyn Tootill welcomed the new clinic, and said the school was delighted to be the first to receive the clinic. Students sang a welcoming waiata, before being shown through the new clinic, one class at a time.

MidCentral Health Child Adolescent Oral Health Project manager Kate Aplin said: “The response from schools in the region to receiving the mobile dental clinics has been extremely positive with a willingness to discuss how the Child Adolescent Oral Health Service and the school can improve the oral health status within the MidCentral DHB region.”

The first double clinic will begin service at Foxton Primary School on 15 March 2010. A further double mobile dental clinic is due to arrive at Palmerston North Hospital campus for acceptance testing that week. Meanwhile, the DHB is continuing its investigations into providing universal access in the future.

There is one dental chair in the single mobile units and two dental chairs in the double mobile units. The dental chairs are highly technical chairs which the client sits in while receiving oral health care. They are the key component to this service, along with modern equipment cleaning areas and digital x-ray.

The clinics have been equipped so that each Dental Therapist will be able to see approximately 55 children a week. There is a small increase in clinical staff (Dental Therapists and Assistants) in the reconfigured service.

A major change is that Dental Therapists will no longer have to work by themselves due to having a colleague in the two chair clinics, as well as a Dental Assistant in single and double chair clinics.

The Ministry of Health, in conjunction with the NZ Dental Therapists Association, provides guidelines for the number of patients a Dental Therapist is able to work with each year and from this the number of chairs required is worked out.

Consideration of the oral health status in different areas is also used in this equation to ensure that where there are areas of high oral health need, there are enough Dental Therapists and chairs to accommodate this.

Any dental work that requires sedation will be undertaken in the MidCentral District Health Board’s dental unit at Palmerston North Hospital.

Updates, project documentation and progress is available from the MidCentral District Health Board website: http://www.midcentraldhb.govt.nz/oral-health

Contact: Communications Unit (06) 350 8945