3-year-old girl with decaying teeth couldn’t be treated right away

By RNZ

A 3-year-old girl whose back teeth were crumbling and painful could not be treated immediately because her case did not qualify as urgent.

She was one of thousands of children across the country who waited long periods for specialized care or operations because the public system was so overwhelmed.

Some parents resorted to borrowing money so that they could be treated privately.

The Waikato woman, Amanda Hines, is one of them.

Her 3-year-old daughter, Addie, talked about her teeth all the time.

“She was crying in the middle of the night, we were bowling down the Pamol,” Hines said.

“When she ate something, the pain throbbed in the back of her mouth. She would say ‘Mom, my teeth, my teeth.’

She was diagnosed with a condition where enamel doesn’t form properly, so despite her good diet and regular brushing, her back teeth were crumbling.

That was in August.

Hines said that after trying for a long time to contact the community dental clinic, she got an appointment and a diagnosis.

Because Addie was so young, she needed to be treated with general anesthesia.

The dental service initially told Hines that Addie could not be referred for treatment to DHB due to long delays and that she would be reassessed in three months, she said.

Hines said it “made a lot of noise” and managed to get on the list, but then, without an appointment for November, he opted to have the work done in private.

Family members loaned them money for work, about $ 3,000.

Addie was treated two weeks ago and was a different girl when she woke up the next day, Hines said.

“She just said ‘Mom, no sore teeth.’

The day after Addie’s surgery, Hines said DHB called her to tell her that Addie had an appointment for her treatment.

That was frustrating, but she was glad that a child whose family couldn’t have gone in private now had a place, she said.

In a statement, the Waikato DHB said that the sequence of events for Addison’s care did not match its records, but did not say more because it was unable to release patient information.

The children were not denied a place on the waiting list for oral health services, a spokesperson said.

But the president of the Dental Association and dentist who did Addie’s work, Katie Ayers, said that was not always the case.

Oral health therapists across the country were under pressure to try to reduce the number of referrals on the waiting list.

If the children could be monitored and receive preventive or alternative treatment in the meantime, he had a feeling that was preferable, he said.

Not all DHBs had long waiting lists, but it was a problem in many in the upper North Island, he said.

Parents who chose to go private often felt their son had waited too long or struggled with the uncertainty of not having a surgery date and not knowing how long they would be in pain, he said.

Waikato DHB said there were about 300 children on the waiting list to work under anesthesia, with an average wait time of 100 days.

Some children waited more than four months, although the DHB did not specify how long.

He was increasing ward time to shorten the waiting list and seek different types of sedation that would allow them to treat children faster, a spokesperson said.

He would contact Hines to discuss his concerns and make sure Addie receives appropriate care in the future, he said.