Photo: 123RF
District Health Board Hauora Tairāwhiti has long acknowledged the challenge of providing a dental service for adolescents on the East Coast, pointing to the difficulties of attracting permanent dental therapists and dentists to remote areas.
The new mobile dental clinic is a relief to Tolaga Bay Area School principal Nori Parata, who said it was about two years since many of her students were last seen by a dentist.
She was absolutely delighted to see the service start at her school on 14 April, but reaching this point had been a drawn-out process. It is disturbing when you think that they re entitled to this service, and it s taken this long to do, Parata said.