By Lisa Schick

Oral surgeon shortage leaves patients waiting up to a year in Regina

Sep 16, 2014 | 7:06 AM

Experiencing horrible pain one day, not that bad the next; Morgan Brady needed to get her wisdom teeth removed but like many in Regina, she was looking at a wait of more than a year.

At the moment there are only two oral and maxillofacial surgeons in Regina, and each is booked for months in advance. One is currently booked solid until the end of April 2015 and isn't taking appointments into the summer yet, and the other has a wait of about eight to 10 months for a consultation appointment, and then another three months after that for the surgery.

Some people wait for the appointments but others can't; Brady, 25, was one who couldn't wait.

“The pain is unbearable, and tooth pain, it's different, it gives me bad headaches, it's hard to concentrate,” said Brady.

Brady's dentist first identified a problem in her mouth in November 2013, and an appointment was made with one of Regina's oral surgeons for the next summer. In the meantime Brady waited and saw her dentist periodically for prescriptions for antibiotics and medication to control the pain.

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When the time finally came for her consultation appointment, thanks to a mistake on the part of Brady, the appointment had to be rescheduled. It was pushed another three months into the future. It was then that Brady decided she couldn't wait any more.

“I was like there's got to be something, I'm not waiting around for half a year to have these extracted. I just need them out of my mouth.”

So she started asking around, and a family friend in the industry suggested that she call oral surgeons in other cities, including those Alberta. Brady finally managed to get in contact with a surgeon's office in Calgary.

“Here in Regina you're having trouble with your teeth you're put on a wait list, you wait months for a consultation where they're not even extracted. You're put on another wait list for an appointment. I called the Calgary office beginning to middle of August and they were willing to see me the week following.”

Brady had her wisdom teeth extracted in Calgary in the last week of August with her consultation appointment and surgery on the same day. Had she waited for a surgeon in Regina, Brady says she likely wouldn't have been able to have her surgery until April 2015.

Mark Ogrady, department head of surgery with the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region, said the shortage of oral surgeons in the region is thanks, in part, to a number of recent retirements. He said the region's hands are tied right now in what it can do to reduce wait times, but it does have a recruiting program in place, and the region is in the process of recruiting one specialist in particular.

“Whenever we look at recruiting it's not a static snapshot in time. We'll bring one person in, see what impact it has, and if we need more people, we'll get more people,” said Ogrady.

According to the College of Dental Surgeons of Saskatchewan, the wait time in Saskatoon is quite a bit shorter than in Regina, with five oral and maxillofacial surgeons in that city.

Jared Orb, executive director of the college, said dentistry isn't always on the top of the list for the provincial government because it's more in the realm of private health care than public.

Orb said they've improved efforts to recruit dentists and specialists into the province, but the programming isn't really there to retain or bring them in.

“We've spoken to government about it a bit, and they don't seem terribly interested in it.”
But Orb said the college does have a good working relationship with the province, he just wishes they would pay more attention to oral health in general.

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