New children's clinic to build dental school's ties with community

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Scissors at the ready and dressed to the nines, 2-year-old Evie Pennington was set for her starring role in the opening ceremony of the new dental clinic at the University of Otago's School of Dentistry yesterday.

However, it all became too much for the clinic's first patient and she had to call on her mother, Micaela, of Ravensbourne, to take over her ribbon-cutting duties.

Some more prospective patients, members of the George Street Normal School's kapa haka group, also took part in the ceremony yesterday, which was attended by about 80 people.

The two-chair clinic is part of the Southern District Health Board's community oral health service project, revamping the school dental service with a mix of fixed and mobile clinics.

The clinic, which will be in full swing next year, will be one of seven fixed clinics for Otago.

It will cater for children from the northern parts of Dunedin.

District health board dental therapists will staff the clinic on six-monthly rotation, with their assistants employed by the dental school. Therapists Mary Sayer and Margaret Kane will already be familiar to some of the children they will see, as they have previously worked in the northern part of the city.

Ms Sayer, who has been involved in setting upthe clinic, said the stint at the clinic was a good opportunity to mix with others in the dentistry field.

School of Dentistry dean Prof Gregory Seymour said that in the past few years there had been an increasing view that medical and dental schools had a role that extended beyond education to serving the community.

University of Otago health sciences pro-vice-chancellor Dr Peter Crampton said the clinic was an expression of the university's highly valued relationship with the DHB. The two organisations would be "working together a great deal more in the forthcoming years", he said.

DHB acting chief executive Lexie O'Shea said the dental school already treated children and teenagers and, at times, those children had to be treated under general anaesthetic because of the level of decay.

She hoped the new service would lead to less need for such treatment and more children becoming "caries-free".

The oral health approach used in the service emphasises collaboration between dental therapists and parents from an early age.

Convener of the programme that trains dental therapists and hygienists Alison Meldrum said it was important parents were involved because children were not responsible for such things as the type of food chosen.

The dental school will also run the clinic at Brockville School. Mrs Meldrum said it had run the clinic at Forbury School for the past two years, but that was now closing because the school was.

Being directly connected with a clinic gave students more opportunity to practise in a holistic way and in a community setting similar to that they might encounter after graduating.

Board project manager Graham Bugler said the whole project across Otago and Southland would be completed by 2013.

• The new clinic is on the second floor of the dental school. Dedicated patient car parking will be available for parents and caregivers bringing children to the clinic.