Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Fort Resolution (Apr 24/00) - Health cutbacks have become a roadblock to dental health in this South Slave community.

Reductions in health benefits implemented about a year ago have resulted in the loss of the travelling dentist who used to visit the town.

"We haven't had a visiting dentist service here since December 1999," said Gail Beaulieu, nurse in charge at the Fort Resolution Health Care Centre. "I suppose it makes sense in the day and age of fiscal restraints."

But she added, "there are quite a few people who need dental services here."

Patients are referred to the Hay River Dental Clinic now at what Beaulieu estimates five to 10 cases per week. Residents must make the 160-kilometre trek for all dental services, including emergency care.

Dr. John Tennant of the Hay River Dental Clinic, which was the former provider of dentists to the community, said funding cuts have created an unfortunate situation regarding dental care in the North.

"Definitely the cuts to the non-insured health benefits (NIHB) service has made much more of a paper chase," he said. "I don't have enough dentists to send in there any more."

Tennant said in the last year, he has lost three dentists, who relocated down south, and has only been able to recruit one. The problem, he said, is because of both administrative changes and the disappearance of the former foreign graduate program. The program enabled foreign dentists to take an examination that permits them to practice in Canada for a three-year term.

"In December the National Dentists Examining Board ceased to exist, " he explained. "Now the only dentists we can recruit are Canadian dentists and those who have already completed the exam. If you look, most dentists who own clinics are foreign graduates."

Although Tennant says the fees paid to dentists doing NIHB work haven't decreased, the workload in order to claim those fees have, through administrative changes. "There are limits to the amount of work that can be done without pre-authorization," Tennant explained, saying now only emergency work under $600 doesn't require it. "There is now three times as much work to claim 80 per cent of our fee and that makes (going to communities) less attractive."

The clinic has also stopped sending dentists to Fort Simpson, Deh Cho, Wrigley, Fort Liard, Nahanni Butte and Trout Lake. From now on, they will be serviced by dentists from the University of Manitoba.