Dental Asia November/December 2023

UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
prevention strategies should come from
the government,” Dr Johnston said.
Water fluoridation was a preventive
action advocated by the NZDA which
was recently mandated by the Director
General of Health in 2022, where
funding was provided for local district
councils to flouridate community water
supplies.
Areas that the NZDA would like to work
with other non-government agencies
on similarly desired health outcomes
include NZDA’s preventative strategy
of sugar minimisation throughout the
society, removing unhealthy food and
beverage options from public areas,
anti-smoking and anti-vaping education,
and only water being served in schools,
tertiary institutes and all government
departments.
Additionally, Dr Johnston highlighted
education and accessibility as important
barriers in cases where cost is not a
factor. Despite the funding provided by
the CDA, the NZDA found that 30-40% of
eligible participants still do not attend.
Dr Johnston noted that as a dental
association, the right balance was
needed to help patients, minimise
disease and offer good prevention
strategies, while allowing the workforce
to be well resourced. “You cannot be
expected to run a practice if it is not
financially viable. It is really important
for the association and for the jobs
that practitioners are doing to get the
balance right so that our workforce is
not stretched. The students come out
with big student loans that need to be
paid off. We cannot afford to give it
away,” she said.
NZDA: FOR THE COMMON GOOD
Dr Johnston’s resolve in leading
the NZDA through the crisis was
unwavering seeing her role as both an
“honour” and “joy”.
“We have got a very strong association
with a membership of about 98%
of all dentists in New Zealand, and
are committed to engaging with our
stakeholders, our workforce and our
government and partners in New
Zealand to improve oral healthcare. We
have a really high standards of ethics,
clinical ability, and a strong commitment
to our organisation,” she said.
“As far as New Zealand culture goes, we
have our underlying constitution of our
country, the Treaty of Waitangi which
underpins all policy in New Zealand
and the way we get anything done.
The indigenous people have a special
place. Unfortunately, statistics show
that the Māori are underserved in
health equity. We are working hard to
kind of establish some way of getting
equity across the country, specifically
with Māori as our focus.”
The association held their first oral
health summit in August about
two months before the elections
where stakeholders from various
political parties, press, Māori Health
Association, and Oral Hygiene
Association, gathered in Wellington
to discuss policy and public health
strategies.
“It was a really great timing and
we had to take advantage of an
opportunity. We tried to get as many
sectors across oral health as we
possibly could to try and open some
communication and establish a
forum to try and get some change,”
Dr Johnston said. “We are hoping that
some things come out of it. Nothing
has changed immediately, but it is a
good place to start.”
Despite the challenges faced by the
NZDA and the New Zealand population
in the oral health crisis, Dr Johnston
remained encouraged by the interest
shown in oral health recently.
More than 5,000 members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists employed
by Health New Zealand were on a planned strike on 21 Sep from midnight until noon over
concerns about pay and workload (Image: RNZ/ Delphine Herbert)
“We do have a really good workforce
here. At the moment half of the
population struggle to access dentistry
when they need it, and the other
half are receiving good dentistry
from an ethical and well-trained
workforce. There are certainly some
improvements we can make to provide
care to some parts of the community
but the system is not completely
broken. It is just not working for some
parts of the community,” Dr Johnston
said. “We are committed to engaging
with the government to try and get oral
health brought up to good standards
so that everybody in our country can
get the best oral health possible.” DA
20 DENTAL ASIA NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2023