New dental project improving senior smiles

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JULIA WADE

22 Aug, 2022

 

Thanks to a kind act of professional generosity, senior citizens in a neighbouring town now have cleaner teeth, flossed gums and sparkling dentures due to a new local initiative aimed to improve the oral health of Northland’s elderly.

Mangawhai Dental’s new project, Kaipara Aged Oral Health Care, was activated on August 6 when a team of eight staff willingly gave up a Saturday and went mobile to volunteer their specialised services free of charge for the residents at Waipu’s Ranburn aged care facility.

Thirty-five seniors, including tenants living in the centre’s dementia unit, took advantage of the initiative, placing themselves in the qualified hands of a hygienist, clinical dental technician, two dentists and four supporters. The team set up their day-clinic in four rooms of the retirement centre to provide basic dental treatment as well as oral health care advice for residents and the centre’s support staff, Mangawhai Dental’s general and community specialist dentist Dr Ellen Clark says.

“The carers were educated on the importance of oral health for the elderly and we demonstrated how to accurately provide and perform daily oral hygiene activities on their residents who are unable to do so independently,” she says.

“Ranburn were very organised, they had contacted every resident and their families to invite them to register for our free dental day, and also had three extra support staff rostered in addition to our four. This made for a very streamlined experience for the residents. If this is a successful project, we would like to provide this care on an ongoing basis.”

The purpose of the project is to improve the oral health status for people who either live at home in Kaipara or in neighbouring aged care facilities, treating and preventing oral diseases for the hard-to-reach vulnerable population, who often have little access or funding for dental care and prevention Clark says.

“It’s really hard getting dental care for older people in care, many residents experience dental pain on a daily basis and if family are unable to transport or afford dental care, they often do not receive it.”

Thanks to being awarded a Mars Wrigley Foundation NZDA Community Service Grant, the team were also able to gift dental products to the seniors.

“All our patients received a sonic toothbrush or denture brushes where appropriate, and we also provided new denture cases, Polident and denture cleaner to many residents.”

With 18 fillings, one tooth extraction, ten full hygiene cleans and 15 sets of dentures assessed, adjusted and cleaned, an estimated $9000 of work was carried out, making for ‘a very busy day’.

“The Ranburn staff were very helpful and grateful to us for helping their residents and on the evaluation forms, which were filled in by all patients besides the eight seniors in the dementia unit, we received some very positive feedback, “Clark says. “It was a feel-good day with some brighter smiles.”

 

The Mangawhai Dental team goes mobile to tend to the oral health of local and neighbouring seniors. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

 

Dentist Dr Ellen Clark says many residents in aged care facilities suffer from dental pain due to difficulties accessing a service, so the team took their skills to them instead. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

 

“If this is a successful project, we would like to provide this care on an ongoing basis.”

– Dr Ellen Clark

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