Self-extractions under the influence and desperate visits to hospital in search of painkillers are the reality for people in Tai Rāwhiti who struggle to pay for their dental treatment.
But a free dental service for first-time visitors to the region aims to ease the burden.
One of the patients, Tony Tupuola, can’t stop smiling now that she has had her teeth fixed.
The last time she visited a dentist, 20 years ago, in high school, was a painful experience.
The 38-year-old said appointments at Checkpoint are expensive and there are usually long waits.
“By the time you get there, you’ll be in more pain than the contractions.
“You go there and they say you need a tooth pulled, and if you don’t have the money, they send you to WINZ,” Tupuola said.
“You now have to wait another week or so for WINZ to make an appointment so you can get a quote so you can go back. Then you have to wait another four weeks before you can go to the dentist again…
“I might as well use the Kai money and let my family work on a smaller budget that week so I don’t have any more pain.”
Tupuola treated her aching teeth with clover oil, heat packs and painkillers.
She had also resorted to self-extraction.
“Just drink half a bottle of vodka, take out the tongs and the next morning you’ll be bothered by it,” she said.
“The best thing was to go to the ER at 9pm because I was in so much pain, and they gave me an injection to numb it for 12 hours so I could sleep. They also gave me antibiotics.
“But it’s just a cover. It only works for a few hours and then you’re back,” she said.
“It’s my kids and my husband who are suffering, because I’m tired. I’m in pain and I just became a real b****. I want to be locked in a room.”
That pain was a thing of the past after she underwent treatment at Trinity Koha Dental’s first clinic in Gisborne.
“(I’ve had) eight fillings — and I’ve had a cleaning and a teeth cleaning, and I’m also connected to another fulla to get a partial denture because I don’t have any more teeth.”
Tupuola said she wanted to get that work done and then she could enjoy a steak for the first time in a while.
The clinic, run by Māori health organisation Turanga Health in the suburb of Elgin, focused on treating mothers.
The Trinity Koha clinic dentists and staff were volunteers and visited Gisborne thanks to the efforts of Health New Zealand’s Tairāwhiti Localities Plan and local health providers.
Amohaere Houkamau from the local project said funding was available to open clinics elsewhere in Tai Rāwhiti and on the east coast in the coming months. They aim to treat around 500 people.
Affordability and availability of care were major issues, Houkamau said, with some parts of the region lacking even a dentist.
The Localities project had identified dentistry as one of the most pressing health needs in the region and work was underway to develop a dental health strategy, Houkamau said.
Turanga Health population health kaiwhakahaere Dallas Poi said about $1000 per person had been budgeted.
“Some of the moms who come through here need a major overhaul of their teeth,” she said.
“We were able to do everything we could while they were there, but there are certainly mothers who need ongoing treatment.
“That is something we will work on together.”
Poi said Turanga Health also took the opportunity to check other things while the mothers were there, such as whether the children’s vaccinations were up to date.
Trinity Koha clinic coordinator Julia Parker said the clinic was mainly operating in the southern Waikato and Bay of Plenty. While the clinic would like to operate further afield, it had already reached capacity.
“Everywhere we go we see the same thing,” she said.
“We were in Ōpōtiki in April… some women from Ōpōtiki called and said, ‘Thank you for giving me my husband back.’
“The treatment has made a huge difference to their entire whānau.”
The clinic has now visited the bay of Ūawa Tolaga.
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