A Dunedin GP says although she welcomes a $200,000 pilot scheme to treat adult dental problems, it is likely to expose much need that the programme will be unable to meet.
Dr Susie Lawless was asked for comment on a Southern Primary Health Organisation initiative to fund dental care for high-needs adults. It starts next month.
''Hopefully, the results of this pilot will give us a snapshot of the amount of unmet need in the referred population and help inform further funding.
''If would be great if it could lead to better access to preventive care in the future, some of which could, hopefully, be delivered by dental therapists or hygienists, which would be more cost-effective.''
The pilot would treat only those with established disease and prevention was not a priority for the Government, she believed.
In what is thought to be a New Zealand first, the PHO will use school oral health clinics to treat adults who cannot afford to visit the dentist.
Dr Lawless doubted the fund would be sufficient to meet the need, which has also been acknowledged by programme clinical director Dr Tim Mackay.
''We have been waiting for this initiative for quite a while - because free population dental care stops at 18, there is a large and unmeasured pool of need around chronic dental problems in adults,'' Dr Lawless said.
The pilot scheme would treat up to 180 people but there were likely to be many more who could benefit. Like other targeted social assistance, eligibility was based on ethnicity and postal address. This was a ''blunt instrument'', particularly in smaller urban centres where there were pockets of poverty in every suburb, she said.
The New Zealand Oral Health Survey in 2009 revealed many adults were going without dental care because they could not afford it. Nearly half the adults surveyed felt they needed dental treatment. Nearly half had avoided dental care due to cost, and one in four had gone without recommended routine dental treatment due to cost in the past year.
