The vacancy rate among dental therapists who check up on school kids has more than tripled in just one year, with a clinic in regional WA saying the consequences for children’s oral health have been “horrific”.

The School Dental Service provides free care for students at Dental Therapy Centres.

But it has been revealed — following questions in parliament from Kalgoorlie and Broome-based Liberal MLC Neil Thomson — that the program was down 22 staff on average in 2022-2023. Last year it was only down six, and the year before there were no vacancies.

And it took more than three months on average for a child to be seen after they had requested an appointment, for something as common — and painful — as for a sore tooth.

Kalgoorlie-based Goldfields Family Dental owner and dental therapist Alex Naylor said vacancies locally meant children were now coming into her private practise needing to have all their teeth taken out.

“Over the last four years, we have seen an increase in presentation to the clinic of children who have dental infections, who have facial swelling,” Ms Naylor said.

“Personally I have seen two kids in the clinic in the last six months that we’ve had to put into hospital here to have all of their teeth taken out. And I hadn’t seen that before in my 20-year career ever.”

Ms Naylor said children — who are “high risk” of dental issues because they snack and don’t brush properly — should be checked every six months.

“If we had adequate prevention measures in place, we wouldn’t be seeing so many children losing their teeth,” she said.

Ms Naylor said her clinic, via a mobile van, recently visited an Indigenous community near Kalgoorlie.

“What we saw was horrific. Their bottom jaws are growing forward because they have no teeth at the top to stop their jaw growth. Everything in their mouth was rotten,” she said.

WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam said the tripling in vacancy rates was “another example of healthcare services going backwards” under the Cook Government.

“The Government needs to fix its priorities and focus its attention on fixing our broken health system,” she said.

Mr Thomson accused the Government of creating a “vicious cycle” whereby kids can’t get appointments and ended up needing emergency appoints — putting even more pressure on the health system.

Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said dentists were a key focus for the Government, but that dental health services “across the world” were facing staffing challenges.

“The Cook Government has grown WA’s healthcare workforce by 30 per cent and continues to invest in measures to boost recruitment,” she said.

Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson.

A North Metropolitan Health Service spokesperson also admitted that staffing the SDS, especially in regional areas, remained challenging.

The NMHS said it was focused on providing services for rural and remote areas and had implemented measures such as employing temporary FIFO dental staff for regional centres, as well as having dental staff from Perth and larger regional cities travel to smaller towns.

“Wait lists are on target with Australia’s national oral health plan, which indicates people should have a dental check up every two years,” they said.

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