Nowra Dental Clinic Officially Opened

The Member for South Coast, Shelley Hancock and Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra and South Coast, Gareth Ward officially opened the $3.4m Nowra Dental Clinic at the end of last year. A traditional Aboriginal smoking ceremony was held on site before staff transitioned into the new clinic and patient service.

Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (ISLHD) Director Oral Health, Dr Mark O’Connor said the new dental clinic provides the local community with increased access to primary prevention services and oral health education programs.

“Good oral health is an important component of general health, and access to care, together with education, are the first steps in reducing gaps in the oral health status of our community,” said Dr O’Connor.

“The clinic provides child and adult dentistry, dental hygiene services, denture services and specialist services such as oral surgery to eligible clients in the Shoalhaven region,” he said.

The purpose-built facility includes eight dental surgeries, as well as enhanced diagnostic tools such as panoramic x-ray facilities and new accessibility equipment to enable the treatment of bariatric patients and users of wheelchairs.

“The new facility follows other significant innovations that the Oral Health Service has recently rolled out, including going live with ‘Titanium’, a state-of-the-art electronic clinical record and booking system,” Dr O’Connor said.

The Titanium software replaces paper records with a completely electronic system – encompassing patient files, clinical notes and X-rays as well as a more efficient way to manage appointments and waiting lists and an increased reporting capacity.

Online records also means that clinical information is accessible across the District, which assists with consultation and review by specialists.

Nowra Dental Clinic

9 Lawrence Avenue, Nowra.
The clinic is open five days a week.
Oral Health Central Intake Centre – Phone: 1300 369 651.

Accessing Dental Services

Dental services are provided free of charge to community members that reside within the District’s boundaries and meet the eligibility criteria:

• Child clients must be eligible for Medicare
• Adult clients (18 years and older) must be eligible for Medicare and hold (or are listed as a dependent on) one of the following valid Australian Government concession cards: Health Care Card, Pensioner Concession Card or Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.