Taranaki parents say their children are suffering because of long delays for major dental work under general anaesthetic.
There are more than 100 children up to the age of 14 on the Taranaki district health board's waiting list Photo: 123RF
There are more than 100 children and adolescents up to the age of 14 on the district health board's waiting list.
They are waiting months for treatment.
New Plymouth seven-year-old Nethan D'souza has autism.
His mother, Roshni, said her son struggled to brush his teeth and had such bad tooth decay he was on a liquid diet.
"Most of his teeth are decayed due the medication he takes and he stopped eating the limited food he used to and was just eating liquid, like mango."
Nethan is a patient of Dr Mary-Anne Costelleo, a Stratford dentist and paediatric dentistry specialist, who has described the long wait for treatment under anaesthetic in Taranaki as a form of child neglect.
She was able to fill some of Nethan's teeth in May and since then his weight has increased by four kilos.
Dr Costelleo referred him to the DHB to have multiple teeth removed under general anaesthetic but seven months later he was still waiting for an appointment.
His mum believed he was suffering.
"I think he was in a lot of pain, but you can't see from his facial expression. When we tried to brush his teeth he would not allow us to and just run away.
"He doesn't show the pain and he doesn't express it. He doesn't know how to express his pain, but he's in a lot of pain.
"It's very difficult for us to see him like that."
D'souza said the treatment Dr Costelleo had given her son gave her hope hospital care could make a real difference to her son's predicament.
Dr Mary Anne Costelloe Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
She didn't think it was acceptable that children were left for months on the district health board waiting list.
"I think they should do a priority list for the kids because it's very difficult. It's really difficult and especially for the children with special needs, especially autism or something like that because they can't communicate. They can't express their pain.
"And it's very hard for the parents as well because they are dealing with many other problems and these dental issues are an extra burden on us."
An Inglewood father, who RNZ has agreed not to name, said the problems with his son's teeth began with a misdiagnosis.
"When we originally took him to the dentist they from my understanding never x-rayed his teeth. It was just not a thorough examination I believe.
"And 12 months later we ended up in a very tricky place where he had a lot of decay and holes and teeth that needed to be extracted."
By this stage the five year old was not eating properly and was obviously in pain.
"When he complains about something you know there's something seriously wrong, so for something to affect him it has to be pretty bad.
"And there were times there when he didn't want to know about dinner or any kind of food or anything and just wanted a drink of water and you pick up on those things as a parent and begin to as questions."
A Hawera dentist referred the boy to Dr Costelleo.
His father said at that stage his son faced a potentially lengthy wait for treatment under general anaesthetic.
"Mary Anne did an assessment and then said we needed to get him back in as soon as possible and deal with these issues right now or otherwise you're going to be looking at a 12 month wait.
"If we had gone down the general anaesthetic route we would be still waiting now and he would still have been complaining about holes in his teeth."
He said a further lengthy delay after what he, the boy and his mother had gone through already would have been unbearable.
Taranaki DHB says there're 101 children on its general anaesthesia waiting list, and they will generally wait 4-8 months for treatment, except for acute cases which are brought forward.
The Ministry of Health says there are currently 3537 children aged 0-14 nationwide waiting for dental treatment in a hospital setting - typically under General Anaesthetic.