Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Feb 05/99) - The current two-month backlog many non- insured health benefits plan dental clients face could disappear if Western Arctic Dental Services receptionist and business assistant Hero Wright is right about computer technology.

Wright says she now deals with a tonne of paper in a sluggish, paper-pushing system which could be drastically tightened if NIHB workers could access the clinic's files on-line.

"A computer link with NIHB could uplink, at the end of the day, all of our files (so) they could do their approval or comments on the computer and we could have them the next day," the 20-year-old says of possible changes years down the road.

If that happens her job tasks could also change from booking appointments, billing clients and answering phones for the clinic's three dentists. She also answers client questions about different insurance plans.

Last year, NIHB started requiring dentists to submit written explanations and X-rays to justify clients' dental-work needs to Ottawa.

Despite that having meant some delays, Wright says NIHB is one of the better kinds of coverage to have.

"With private insurance there is usually a block sum of insurance you can use in a year -- say $1,000 or $1,500. With NIHB you get $600 you can just use and then if you need work on top of that you can get permission from them to exceed that $600," says the two-year Inuvik resident, originally from Edmonton.

Her favourite part of the job is meeting people and how the clinic offers more conventional hours than her past job as a bartender at the Mackenzie Hotel.

Her least favourite part of the job may be hearing the screams of fearful kids awaiting or enduring the dreaded dentist.

She says kids often scream as though dentists are inflicting great pain while they're in the chair, but once they get a sticker and toothbrush while she is booking a future appointment, they are excited.

Outside of work, Wright spends time with her common-law partner, Julian Tomlinson, and the two go out on the land in snowmobiles whenever they get a chance on weekends.

Another source of affection is her two new puppies, Ellie and Tika.

And to indicate the balance and peace she has found in Inuvik, Wright has a tattooed symbol on the back of her neck which she says means a balance of mind, body and spirit.

"I can't imagine living in a city again," she says.