Dental Services in New Zealand
Most oral health services for adults are provided privately by dentists.
Need to find a dentist in Nelson Marlborough? There is a New Zealand register of dentists.
The current pattern of dental disease in New Zealand has three noteworthy characteristics.
- Tooth decay has reduced due to water fluoridation and the use of fluorides in other forms. However, the Nelson/Marlborough regions have low fluoride levels
- A concurrent attitudinal change has meant that more people choose to keep their teeth
- Even though disease has fallen, large groups in the community still have high levels of disease
The provision of free dental care for children and adolescents aims to assist the maintenance of functional, natural teeth and to bring about an improvement in the oral health status of the population.
In Nelson Marlborough, the school dental service and hospital services are provided by NMDHB.
Oral health has been given a high priority in the NMDHB Strategic Plan, because the rates of dental decay in children in Nelson Marlborough are of concern.
Both NMDHB and many private dentists also provide services to school age children when they require a higher level of care or when emergency care after hours is required.
Private dentists provide services to adolescents and are funded on a fee-for-service basis for this work. Not all dentists are contracted to provide this service.
Please click on the drop down topics below for more information on school and adolescent dental services.
Key strategies identified in the plan to improve oral health are:
- Promote the uptake of fluoride
- Encourage children and young people to adopt eating habits that prevent tooth decay
- Find ways of increasing the use of oral health services by young people, especially young Maori
- Look at ways of improving access of low income adults to oral health services
Oral Health Newsletter - Issue 1 November
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