Urgent change is needed in our dental system so we don't continue to fail our kids.

A new paper from the University of Otago says dental decay is the most prevalent non-communicable childhood disease in this country, despite our publicly funded dental care for kids.

By age five, 60 percent of Māori, 70 percent of Pasifika and 33 percent of non-Māori/Pasifika kids have dealt with some kind of dental decay.

NZ Dental Association Access to Care spokesperson Katie Ayers joined Mike Hosking.

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