Photo: Jimmy Ellingham
Drunken self-extractions and desperate hospital visits seeking pain relief are the reality for people in Tai Rāwhiti who struggle to pay for dental work.
But a free dental service visiting the region for the first time is aiming to ease the burden.
One of its patients, Tony Tupuola, cannot stop smiling now she has had her teeth fixed.
The 20 years since she last saw a dentist, at high school, have been a world of pain.
The 38-year-old told Checkpoint appointments were expensive and there was usually a long wait to be seen.
"By the time you get there, you're in pain worse than labour.
"You get in there and they say it [a tooth] needs to be extracted. If you've not got the money, they send you away to go to WINZ," Tupuola said.
"You've now got another week or so wait for WINZ to get an appointment there, to grant you the quote to be able to go back, then you've got another four-week wait to get back into the dentist...
"I may as well use the kai money and make my family work off a smaller budget for that week so I'm out of pain."
Tupuola would treat her aching teeth with clover oil, heat packs and pain killers.
She had also resorted to self-extraction.
"Just down half a bottle of vodka and pull the pliers out - suffer the next morning," she said.
"The best one was going to A and E at 9pm in pain and them injecting me to numb it for 12 hours just so I could sleep, and [they gave] antibiotics.
"But, it's only a cover. It only works for a few hours then you're back," she said.
"It's my kids and my husband who suffer, because I'm fatigued. I'm in pain and I was just becoming a real bitch. I'd want to be locked away in a room."
Amohaere Houkamau says dental is one of Tairāwhiti's most pressing health needs. Photo: Jimmy Ellingham
That pain was a thing of the past after she received treatment during Trinity Koha dental's first Gisborne clinic.
"[I had] eight fillings - and I had a clean and scale, and I've also been connected with another fulla to get part dentures because I've got no molars left."
Tupuola said she wanted to get that work done and then she could enjoy eating a steak for the first time in ages.
The clinic, hosted by Māori health organisation Turanga Health in the suburb of Elgin, had focused on treating mothers.
The Trinity Koha clinic dentists and staff were volunteers and had been visiting Gisborne thanks to the efforts of Health New Zealand's Tairāwhiti Localities Plan and local health providers.
Amohaere Houkamau, from the locality project, said there was funding to take the clinics elsewhere in Tai Rāwhiti and East Coast over coming months, and they were aiming to treat about 500 people.
Affordability and availability of care were big issues, Houkamau said, and some parts of the wider region were without a dentist.
The Localities project had identified dental as one of the region's pressing health needs, and work was underway to develop a dental health strategy, Houkamau said.
Dallas Poi says about $1000 was budgeted for each person visiting the clinic in Gisborne. Photo: Jimmy Ellingham
Turanga Health population health kaiwhakahaere Dallas Poi said about $1000 was budgeted per person.
"Some of the māmā coming through here need a lot of work to be done on their teeth," she said.
"We've been able to do what we can in the space of time that they've come through, but there are definitely māmā out there who need ongoing treatment.
"That's something we'll work through together."
Poi said Turanga Health was also taking the chance to check on other things when the mums were in, such as whether children's vaccines were up to date.
Trinity Koha clinic co-ordinator Julia Parker says they would love to visit more areas, but its services are maxed out. Photo: Jimmy Ellingham
Trinity Koha clinic co-ordinator Julia Parker said it had mostly operated in south Waikato and Bay of Plenty, and while the clinic would love to go further afield its capacity was maxed out.
"Across the board, we see the same thing everywhere we go," she said.
"We were in Ōpōtiki in April... we had some wives call us from Ōpōtiki saying, 'Thank you for giving me my husband back.'
"The treatment had made a huge difference to their whole whānau."
The clinic has since visited Ūawa Tolaga Bay.
