Campaign group says cost biggest barrier for dental care, welcomes student boost

A campaign group is welcoming the government's move to boost student dentist numbers, but says cost remains the biggest barrier for people accessing dental care.

On Wednesday, Tertiary Education Minister Penny Simmonds announced funded places for domestic dental students at the University of Otago would increase from 60 to 72 per year.

Two of the new places would be set aside for students from rural backgrounds, lifting their minimum from 10 to 12 per year.

It is the first rise in funded places since 2014.

Dental for All campaigner Hana Pilkinton-Ching said increasing the workforce was a step the right direction.

"It's very clear that for a long time we've needed the government to step in and increase the number of training places for dentists. There's a lot more that needs to be done to improve access to oral health in Aotearoa and with Dental for All we're campaigning for the government to bring adult dental care into the public health system and make it free for everyone," she said.

Earlier this year, the Dental Association told RNZ the number of dentists coming through the country's only programme at Otago University was not enough and needed to increase from 60 to 90 per year.

It was revealed some practices were waiting for up to a year to employ dentists, while others were having to close.

Pilkinton-Ching said cost was the greatest barrier for people accessing dental care.

"Nearly half of New Zealand adults have unmet need for dental care due to cost," she said.

"Even though [the government] is increasing the number of training spots they're not then funding the services that are actually going to provide communities with the care that they need."

Dental Association director of dental policy Robin Whyman said the organisation was pleased the government was lifting the cap on the number of student dentists.

"It represents a 20 percent rise and the last rise was in 2014. It will be the first time we've taken the number of students training beyond 60 since the 1980's," he said.

"What really has brought the change at this stage I think is the ability to be able to demonstrate with good data that there is a labour force shortage in New Zealand for dentists.

"The more we have been able to see that playing out in terms of long recruitment times and high vacancy rates has really been one of the drivers to being able to get this change made."

New Zealand has 53 full-time dentists for every 100,000 people aged 15 and over, and almost one in five private practices has a dentist vacancy it cannot fill.

Whyman said the workforce needed to increase further.

"For the number rising further than this is would need to be phased over a number of years so this is a good start and I think it gives us the opportunity to continue to work with the university and the government to look at how further phasing might work," he said.

"It's important we provide that workforce in a flow to the market rather than a great flood."