Dental Coverage for under 5's

[Jessica Slatter]

Hello,

We have a four year old son who we know has cavities. We could not get him an appointment here, before leaving for our move to NZ in Jan. We have have residents status, so we are entitled to health care. I heard that school-age children are covered for dental, but what about under 5's?

Also, is it true that children begin kindergarten on their 5th birthday? What if you child is born in December, as ours is?

~Jessica

[Moomette]

As far as I know, all kids with citizenship or residency get free dental care in NZ, you just need to register them with the dental service -your Plunket nurse should give you the relevant info on how to do this. DD is 15 months and has so far been to one free check-up at the local primary school dentist.

With regards to starting school, you generally start when you turn 5, but don't have to until your 6th birthday. It's fairly common to my knowledge for kids born late in the year to not start until the new school year starts in February.

[JandM]

Yes, it's very common for children to start school on their 5th birthday. (Kindergarten, known as 'kindy', is what they will probably have been at before going to school - just to sort out the terminology.) Any local children who have had birthdays over the summer holiday, i.e. since just before Christmas, will be starting with the new term, normally, so your son would come in with those.

[sophiedb]

Re school - December kids' parents tend to be given the choice of either starting before the end of term (if their 5th birthday falls before the holidays begin) or waiting until the new term starts in February. Most go for the February option, simply because otherwise the poor things have a couple of weeks in school then a looooooong break and.. I believe.. ECE funding (whereby the govt pays for 20hr daycare per week) will continue until the child's 6th birthday if need be, so for working parents it makes sense to hang on until Feb.

[shawankit]

Here is the link to register for child's dental, they will mail you a simple form and once completed and return , your child is registered for free dental by NZ health care system.

http://www.health.govt.nz/yourhealth...your-local-dhb

[expatella]

Free dental for kids

When I think how much money we have spent already on our five years old dental care

If I tell this to my husband, he might agree on making the move earlier

[Familyofmonkeys]

The free dental care only covers things like dental checks, oral hygiene maintenance and filling cavities. Recent changes to funding means that anything vaguely orthodontic is not covered. For example one of my children has an inherited condition (from me), where there are a couple of milk teeth with no second teeth underneath. The milk teeth will require removal eventually because if they are not they will end up submerging below the gum and in the worst case scenario can end up fused to the jawbone. We will have to pay to get this done at a regular dentist at a cost of about $400 per tooth extraction. The children's dental clinic will not do the procedure at all. If the same teeth had cavities they would have been removed for free.

[peebles16]

The free dental care only covers things like dental checks, oral hygiene maintenance and filling cavities. Recent changes to funding means that anything vaguely orthodontic is not covered. For example one of my children has an inherited condition (from me), where there are a couple of milk teeth with no second teeth underneath. The milk teeth will require removal eventually because if they are not they will end up submerging below the gum and in the worst case scenario can end up fused to the jawbone. We will have to pay to get this done at a regular dentist at a cost of about $400 per tooth extraction. The children's dental clinic will not do the procedure at all. If the same teeth had cavities they would have been removed for free.

I think it depends on the service - the dental service hear does remove 'healthy' teeth if they will impact on the rest of the teeth..... A couple of my friends kids have had teeth removed to make way for adult teeth coming in or if they are over-crowded with too many teeth - not the same example as FoM I know but worth checking out with your local service

Cheers Karen

[peebles16]

The free dental care only covers things like dental checks, oral hygiene maintenance and filling cavities. Recent changes to funding means that anything vaguely orthodontic is not covered. For example one of my children has an inherited condition (from me), where there are a couple of milk teeth with no second teeth underneath. The milk teeth will require removal eventually because if they are not they will end up submerging below the gum and in the worst case scenario can end up fused to the jawbone. We will have to pay to get this done at a regular dentist at a cost of about $400 per tooth extraction. The children's dental clinic will not do the procedure at all. If the same teeth had cavities they would have been removed for free.

I think it depends on the service - the dental service here does remove 'healthy' teeth if they will impact on the rest of the teeth..... A couple of my friends kids have had teeth removed to make way for adult teeth coming in or if they are over-crowded with too many teeth - not the same example as FoM I know but worth checking out with your local service

Cheers Karen