Oral Health Community Facilities & Services Reconfiguration Project

The Ministry of Health’s strategic vision document, "Good Oral Health for All, for Life", outlines 7 key action areas. The first of these is to re-orientate child and adolescent oral health services.

Dental decay is the most common infectious disease in children and one of the major causes of hospital treatment under general anaesthetic. It is preventable. Over 60% of Maori and Pacific pre-schoolers are starting school with dental decay. Improving outcomes for pre-schoolers is fundamental in increasing the preventive focus of oral health. The vision calls for a "seamless" publicly funded oral health service from birth to 18 years of age.

The recommendation is that all children are enrolled with the dental service by one year of age. For the year 2005 in Counties Manukau only 39% of Maori pre-school children, 35% of Pacific pre-schoolers and 60% of other ethnic pre-schoolers have their teeth examined. Our target is to achieve 85% across all ethnic groups.

The current School Dental Clinics do not meet new facility requirements or guidelines. Many are open for only a part of the year. One of the main priorities under the new plan is the transition from the current School Dental Service to Community Oral Health Services.

Community Oral Health Services

Community Oral Health Services (COHS) will be a more recognisable part of the community than traditional school dental clinics. The facilities will be larger, able to support modern dentistry and will be based around a mix of school dental clinics, mobile units, stand-alone community clinics or hospital-based clinics.

Every community will have at least one large, main dental clinic. This clinic will be open full time with some possible late night or weekend hours. It will be supported by a number of smaller outreach clinics, some of which will be mobile and others fixed. All regular dental care services will continue to be completely free.

The first big clinic preceded the Ministry document and is already in the early stages of development. It will be located on Southern Cross school premises on Buckland Road and replace the existing clinic destroyed by fire. Updates on the Buckland Road site will be posted as it progresses.

Next Steps

Re-orientating the child and adolescent oral health services will not happen over night. It is not a "one size fits all" model. Additional research and consultation will take place in each community to ensure that the new services meet the needs of the community and eliminate the inequalities that currently exist. It is estimated to be about a five year process.

We will keep you posted on developments and consultation events taking place in our community through this site so come back often and visit.

If you would like to provide suggestions, comments or input into the look of services in your community click here.

Health Services We Fund

Oral Health: Community Facilities & Service Reconfiguration Project

About the Project

Community Oral Health Services

Next Steps