Aarhus shedding 70 percent of the skoletandklinikkerne

The great shortage of dentists, and the children's improved dental health, get now Aarhus municipality to change the current structure of the tandplejeområdet. Skoletandklinikkerne be reduced by approx. 70 percent and dentists must be in a storklinikker.

The city council of Aarhus municipality decided Wednesday evening to gather skoletandlægerne on 10-16 storklinikker, instead of the current 43 less skoleklinikker distributed on the city's 49 public schools, writes jyllands-posten. At the schools which in the future will be without a dentist, there will instead be clinics with dental hygienists and dental assistants to provide preventive dental care.

The new structure of the tandplejeområdet will be implemented over the next 10 years, and the reason is, besides the fact that it is difficult to get dentists to the municipality, to the children in Aarhus have fewer and fewer holes.

The previous structure dating back to the 1970s, where a dentist only treated 400 children and young people, where they today must take care of around 1,500 children and young people. In the 1970’s got children and young people in Aarhus in the average drilled in the five teeth per year. Today the average is small with 0.7 wells per year. The expectation is that in the future only will need 30 dentists in municipal dental care in Aarhus.

The new development on the tandplejeområdet in the municipality of Aarhus is also a consequence of the increasing tandlægemangel. And that trend goes towards fewer and larger clinics where there are more dentists working in teams. Many young dentists prefer the community they find at a clinic with several dentists.

The social democrats and the SF are skeptical about structural change
“We are in favour of the setting, but we will have a security that you place a part of the future of the dental clinics, where there is a need. They must not be added after a spredekam, but where the need is greatest,” said Steen B. Andersen (S), to the Danish newspaper jyllands-posten. Steen was so worried for the new model, that he also wanted an evaluation after the first year.

One of the greatest challenges facing the new model on the tandplejeområdet is the so-called socially disadvantaged groups, who typically get more tooth decay than their peers. They must have a positive discrimination in relation to where the future storklinikker must be placed in the municipality.

Claus Thomasbjerg (SF), said to jyllands-posten that he is concerned that the children in the future need to spend time on transport to get to the dentist.

“Many parents have to take time off at work to get their children to the dentist. It can mean that they pull tandlægebehandlingen out, until it fits with their work”, argued Claus Thomasbjerg on.

SF suggested that the soft change up, so that the larger units should be supplemented by four mobile tandlægeenheder, which can run around to the clinics.

Gert Bjerregaard from the liberal party (venstre pointed out, like For Steen B. Andersen, that the clinics should be in areas where there is the greatest need, and that there also needs to be easy access to public transport in the areas.

“So we avoid that children spend too much time on transport, and it takes time from the teaching,” said Gert Bjerregaard to jyllands-posten, and highlighted that the main objective of the new structure is that dentists need to work in larger units in order to learn from each other and gain experience.

The location and cost of the big clinics
There is yet to name the schools that will house the new storklinikker. But in Aarhus municipality's report on the new structure are the following schools are referred to as commandments in the schools, which in future will house the large clinics, Møllevangskolen, Vejlby School, Moscow School, Tovshøjskolen, Kragelundskolen and Vestergårdskolen.

The major dental clinics must have three to five tandlægehold, and the cost of establishment of a single storklinik is expected to be around 8.5 million. kr. The total cost for the new tandlægestruktur is expected to reach 100 million. kr. as well as an unknown amount in transportation costs of vulnerable children.