Money for adult dental care despite budget cut, Steve Kent says

Newfoundland and Labrador's health minister says, despite a reduction in the budget for adult dental services, there is plenty of funding available to assist low-income earners.

In an interview with CBC Radio's Crosstalk Friday, Steve Kent said he was disappointed to hear the head of the dental association suggest the revamped denture-care plan is an electioneering tactic.

"I find that amusing, to be honest," said Kent.

"We have one of the best and most comprehensive publicly-funded dental plans in Canada ... We have five different dental programs that have been funded by government, they've been in place for a number of years and, on an annual basis, we provide access to publicly funded dental services to over 188,400 children, youth and adults in the province."

A bite out of the budget

While the caps for some services have been increased, the budget for adult dental care has been trimmed by $1 million and the Newfoundland and Labrador Dental Association is worried the fund will run out of money.

"In the old, pre-budget there was a cap of $200 a year for basic dental services — restorations, extractions, these sorts of things. That was almost enough to do a job, but they've increased that to $300, which is a good news story," says Tony Patey, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Dental Association.

"Try chewing with only one jaw," said Patey. "Yes, that was an ordeal and that was a constant problem and we, from the association, we had represented that to government and government listened. We're pleased to see they were listening. That's a positive thing."

Waitlist woes

However, Patey is troubled by government's decision to trim the budget for adult dental care from $6.7 million to $5.7 million.

"From the dental side, from the oral heath side we would have preferred that they kept their basic up because that's where your infections and your pain and things of that nature apply. And dentures, they could have dragged that down a wee bit and then did their saving there. [Because] face it, no one dies from not having a denture, but dental infection causes other problems within the body. I mean, dentures are good vote-getters," he said.

Patey said the province could decide to increase the budget part way through the year, but the association has gotten no indication from government that it will do so.

"Hopefully, hopefully they won't run out of budget dollars for this program."

Surgical dental issue

Patey said the association is also concerned about the future of the province's surgical dental program.

Surgical dental involves medically compromised people — those preparing for cancer surgeries, heart surgeries or going on a treatment that requires a clean bill of oral health.

"The downside of that is, it costs 60 to 70 per cent to do the work, so you're really doing it, not at cost, but at a loss."

The province has a surgeon who does most of the surgical dental work, but Patey said it's only a matter of time before that surgeon finds better opportunities elsewhere.

"Can we keep him at 40 cents on the dollar? He wants to stay here, he's trying to build a practice but economics is going to dictate eventually — which is sad because we need him, and we need to keep him here."

No promises

Kent said government reduced the overall budget by $1 million in an effort to reign in program overspending.

"With the funds we had available last year, we were able to meet all the demands — including clearing up the waiting list from the year before, and we still had funds left over," Kent said.

While some low-income earners were waitlisted for dentures in past years, Kent said last year's surplus suggests there are adequate funds for the next fiscal year.

Although he can't promise everyone will be covered for new dentures this year, Kent said government has a contingency plan in place should the denture care fund run out,

"In the previous year when that occurred, we simply carried some of the people over into the next fiscal year and, at the present time, there's no wait time at all."