Dental professionals are warning of the "irreversible risks" of attempting at-home dental work after a concerning trend has more Kiwis resort to drastic measures amid rising cost pressures.
New Zealand Dental Association's chief executive Dr Mo Amso told Breakfast it is "absolutely awful" that some Kiwis are choosing DIY solutions because of the expense.
"The number one reason that people will attempt dentistry at home is because they cannot afford care," he said.
"When people really struggle with pain and feel helpless, they resort to doing something on their own."
Amso said people were risking infection by using tools around their home, such as in extreme cases where some use non-sterile pliers to pull their own tooth.
"It's the equivalent of saying, 'I'm going to conduct surgery on myself with just a paper mache scissor' or something like that. You wouldn't do anything like that to yourself, so why are you doing it with dentistry?"
Amso said most often these cases involved whitening with at-home kits, citing an "occasional person who uses regular toilet bleach" on their teeth.
In one instance, Amso said a person on social media platform TikTok has cut their teeth so "irreversibly", it would likely become much more expensive to fix.
Amso said a large part of this trend is the cost of treatment, which he said the Dental Association has "worked hard" to address.
He said the Dental Association responded to "fed up" dentists who could not provide treatment for low-income Kiwis by commissioning a policy for the government, which led to an increase in the Work and Income Grants from $300 to $1000.
"That has gone a significant way in making dentistry accessible for people who are on benefits," he said. "One of the things we've lobbied often is expanding the accessibility to those grants because they do really make a difference for people able to access basic dental care, and at times emergency dental care, or not."
Amso encouraged people to speak with their dentist and be open if a procedure was too expensive or they didn't qualify for funding so they could work out a treatment plan.
"Ask if you could work up a payment plan, some clinics offer things like Afterpay and the likes and you can pay things off and even some insurance policies now include some dental," he said.
"Dentirsty can become accessible if you do seek out some help and we certainly as a profession are doing a lot to try and change that for New Zealand".
SHARE ME