A new poll suggests 72% of Kiwis have had to put off a trip to the dentist because they’re worried about how much it costs.
Additionally, the poll released by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) shows seven out of 10 people want adult dental care funded in the same way it is for children.
With a quarter of New Zealand adults having teeth removed due to decay every year, medical specialists are now calling on the Government to fund access to adult dental care.
The ASMS' Sarah Dalton told Breakfast the lack of subsidies limits people's access to healthcare, adding to the inequities plaguing the health system.
She said the overall cost of a visit and the lack of dentists in rural areas are the main issues for most Kiwis.
“I think largely it is cost, although there are some parts of the country where there simply are no dentists, or it’s just very hard to access a dentist in a similar way to GPs,” she said.
“But the difference here is that there are no subsidies available for adults to access dental care, so price is the primary consideration.”
One in three respondents in the poll said it had been longer than two years since their last trip to the dentist.
This is because, for many, each trip to the dentist can cost more than $300.
Dalton said that while there are some dental subsidies available through MSD, they’re for people who need urgent dental care.
“That’s very much an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.”
She said free dental care would mean people could take a preventative approach to their oral health.
“The people that are accessing these subsidies need significant care - we know that prevention is way better, particularly when it comes to our oral health.”
Dalton and the association would eventually like to see dental care become a part of our public health system, making it free.
“Ultimately, that is something that we would like to see; in the meantime, I think governments will have to realistically stage access to subsidised care.”
She said as more people have access to free dental care, there would be “significantly better outcomes”.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson had previously stated that making dental care free would cost the Government billions. However, Dalton said it would cost around $200 million to $450 million annually.
She’s calling on the Government to implement a sugar tax, which should be able to fund the package.
“This government has said they're not going to look at a sugar tax; that would be an obvious and direct way of which access to dental care could be directly funded.
“There's a lot of damage caused by sugary drinks and sugar in general; we have the second highest sugar consumption in the OECD.”
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