Mobile Dental Clinic

No cow or calf blips today - thought I would give you a rest from seeing something farm related.

As a young girl (many years ago I might add!) I remember going to the dental nurse in the clinic attached to the school. The school here in Murchison have a very modern and updated dental clinic, and the dental nurses use to visit from Nelson twice a year. The children would come out of class and pop into the clinic, which was very convenient for everyone.

Late last year we learnt that the local District Health Board had decided to close all the school dental clinics and replace them with a mobile clinic, which is based in Blenheim (2 hours east of here) - I presume it was a cost cutting exercise. So it is an end of an era for the school dental clinics.

This week the new mobile clinic arrived in Murchison, and based itself up at our local hospital. It was transported here by a big truck, that will come back when the clinic has finished to tow it to the next place.

Dental care is free in New Zealand for children aged from 0 to 17 (or as long as they are still attending school). The dental nurses see children up to Year 8 (aged 12) and after that, the children have to go through to Nelson to see a proper Dentist.

This afternoon my youngest son T had his check up with the dental nurse in this new trailer unit. It was very flash - a dental nurse and chair is at each end of the trailer, so they can see 2 children at a time. It even had a television and magazines in the very small waiting room. Luckily T got a very good report, they were very pleased with his teeth. So even though this was his first visit to this type of clinic, it was his last with the dental nurses. Next year, he is off to Nelson to see a Dentist.

As you can see from the picture we have a wet cold day today, which is good as we need to have a bit more rain to keep the grass ticking away. Hopefully it won't get too much colder.