Poor dental health is a common problem identified in B4 school health checks in Otago and Southland.
Charge nurse manager responsible for co-ordinating public health nurses in Otago for the B4 school programme, Victoria Bryant, said parents were being encouraged to pay closer attention to their children's teeth.
This included looking in their mouths to examine their back teeth, and supervising teeth brushing until their children were 8 years old. The checks showed for many children back teeth were not being brushed as well as they could be and this was leading to tooth decay and sometimes extractions which could have been prevented.
Often, children experiencing tooth pain were not good at identifying it and it could be linked to other issues such as poor sleep or difficult behaviour, she said.
In the past year, 3102 checks were carried out in the Southern DHB area, exceeding the target numbers for children in the high deprivation category as well as the general population.
Overall, 81% of the eligible population received checks, above the national average of 72%.
Ms Bryant said the nurses had tried to make the service as accessible as possible, delivering the checks in a variety of settings including the family home, general practices and some schools.
Parents were generally "pretty positive" about the checks which are designed to pick up health issues and have them addressed before they start school.
Ms Bryant said the checks gave parents the chance to bring up any concerns they had.
Often, they wanted reassurance on matters including speech development and behaviour.
With behaviour, in many instances nurses could help parents understand that what they were experiencing was normal for a child of that age and development, but some could also be referred to parenting programmes and a few children would be referred to a paediatrician for assessment.
More than 100,000 children nationally have received the checks since they were introduced in late 2008. Last financial year, South Canterbury DHB achieved the highest check rate, reaching 95% of its 4 year olds, with Auckland DHB the lowest on 35%.
