{"id":22908,"date":"2025-09-15T02:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T02:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/22908\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T02:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T02:23:07","slug":"health-nz-criticised-after-teens-chance-to-save-teeth-risked-by-hospital-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/22908\/","title":{"rendered":"Health NZ criticised after teen\u2019s chance to save teeth risked by hospital delay"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Health and Disability Commissioner <\/a>found in a report released today that the long-term prognosis for the young person\u2019s teeth had been \u201cseriously jeopardised\u201d and that failure to act sooner was in breach of a section of the code that protects health consumers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

Deputy commissioner Vanessa Caldwell said Health NZ<\/a> should have adhered to the relevant standards, and that the \u201cavulsed teeth\u201d, meaning they had been knocked from their socket, should have been reimplanted with urgency on the day of the accident. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am critical that this did not occur,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The teen\u2019s teeth were ultimately saved by two dental specialists<\/a> who re-implanted them more than 24 hours after the accident, the office of the HDC confirmed to NZME. <\/p>\n

Reimplantation \u2018not urgent\u2019<\/p>\n

The teen was badly injured in the accident<\/a> in May 2021. As well as knocking out his teeth, he sustained a head injury, fractures, cuts and bruising.<\/p>\n

He was assessed at one hospital and after a CT scan he was taken to another hospital for neurological monitoring overnight.<\/p>\n

The complaint to the HDC raised concerns about the lack of awareness of best practice when dealing with the avulsion of teeth.<\/p>\n

Caldwell said each hospital contacted the OMS for advice about assessing and reimplanting the teen\u2019s teeth, and was told it wasn\u2019t urgent.<\/p>\n

According to the first hospital\u2019s clinical records<\/a>, the dental house officer noted that reimplanting teeth was not advised because it was, at best, a temporary solution.<\/p>\n

The house officer instead recommended seeing a private dentist the next day for replacement therapy.<\/p>\n

The advice was similar from the second hospital. <\/p>\n

Health NZ said in its response to the HDC, an offer had been made to reimplant and splint the teeth if the patient was fit to be transferred. A suggestion was made for a referral to a third hospital and that a contact number was provided, but no further call was received.<\/p>\n

Caldwell noted that the house officer\u2019s statements were inconsistent with the clinical records from the first public hospital, and that the handwritten note from the phone call in question had been destroyed by the house officer.<\/p>\n

The teen was transferred to the second public hospital and \u201cthe opportunity to undertake reimplantation\/splinting at Public Hospital 3 was lost\u201d, the HDC said.<\/p>\n

Dad\u2019s complaint prompts investigation<\/p>\n

The teen\u2019s father complained to the HDC about the delay in treatment and the \u201cinappropriate recommendation\u201d that there was no need for urgent care from OMS.<\/p>\n

Twenty-four hours after the accident he arranged an appointment with a private surgeon, who phoned two dental specialists. They said it was \u201calmost certain\u201d the delay would end in the teeth being lost because of \u201cresorption of the roots\u201d, or deterioration from the inside.<\/p>\n

Steps were taken in the interim to maintain the bones around them so that implant treatment could be considered, the HDC said.<\/p>\n

Following re-implantation of the teeth, an orthodontist placed braces on the upper teeth to serve as a splint to support the re-implanted teeth. <\/p>\n

Another orthodontist then sutured the \u201cextensive lacerations\u201d of the teen\u2019s upper gum tissues and arranged for him to see an endodontist for specialist follow-up treatment.<\/p>\n

He told the HDC he was \u201csurprised and disappointed\u201d that the OMS dental house officer had not recommended re-implantation, or arranged a review on the day of the accident.<\/p>\n

The orthodontist said avulsion of teeth was one of the \u201ctrue emergencies\u201d in dentistry.<\/p>\n

He said that once a tooth had been out of the mouth for more than 60 minutes, the chances of it \u201ctaking\u201d reduced significantly.<\/p>\n

Health NZ<\/a> accepted that the teeth should have been reimplanted earlier. <\/p>\n

A doctor who reviewed the clinical notes apologised on behalf of the service that \u201cthe best care was not provided on this occasion,\u201d and for the distress it had caused.<\/p>\n

Health NZ confirmed that the concerns had prompted a review into all aspects of management of its dental trauma service, which included house officer education and support when working after-hours. <\/p>\n

Caldwell said Health NZ should have adhered to the relevant standards. <\/p>\n

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ\u2019s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Health and Disability Commissioner found in a report released today that the long-term prognosis for the young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9331,74,1863,3595,10748,651,11687,23676,9947,535,15974,12513,1342,1668,134,2241,5503,11556,111,43,139,69,1341,12128,11590,1516,672,6110,2846,61,3257,1316,4741],"class_list":["post-22908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-chance","tag-after","tag-back","tag-by","tag-came","tag-close","tag-criticised","tag-cyclist","tag-delay","tag-dental","tag-emergency","tag-failed","tag-five","tag-front","tag-health","tag-hospital","tag-knocked","tag-losing","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-permanently","tag-risked","tag-save","tag-staff","tag-teens","tag-teeth","tag-them","tag-to","tag-treat","tag-when","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}