Children are waiting up to ten years to see a dentist on the Government’s school dental scheme, the Irish Dental Association (IDA), have revealed at their annual conference.
Social Democrats co-leader and former junior health minister, Roisin Shortall, has called on the Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, to intervene directly to stop an “exodus” of dentists.
The Dublin TD said the system is teetering on the “brink of collapse.”
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Ms Shortall was speaking after she received figures from the HSE showing that the numbers of dentists employed by the health service have dropped by a third in five years.
The IDA is holding their annual conference in Portlaoise this week.
The association’s chief executive, Fintan Hourihan, used the occasion to highlight the ridiculous waiting times for dental care in our schools.
The IDA said that primary school children should be having check-ups in second, fourth and sixth class, however, the strain on the system is so much that some children aren’t receiving the first of these three important dental checks until they are in their fourth year of secondary school.
This means that some children are not receiving an initial check-up until they are 16 years of age and are therefore missing out on vital early intervention, resulting in more drastic treatment or, in the worst cases, extractions being required during the formative teenage and early adult years
Mr Hourihan said: “It is shameful that children, special care and other vulnerable patients are not receiving the dental care they are entitled to, with many suffering unnecessarily later in life as a result.
“The simple solution is to adequately staff and resource our Public Dental Service.
“Too many children are slipping through the cracks, despite all the evidence showing that the younger a child is when they are first examined, the less likely the need for major treatment or extractions later.
“Dentists, however, are reporting seeing older children who are requiring three or four extractions and root canal treatment.
“This cannot be allowed to continue.
“We are urging the Government to address this as a critical priority to ensure children are receiving the care they are entitled to under our public dental system and at the earliest opportunity to save them from unnecessary and drastic treatments later.”
Ms Shortall is calling for immediate action from Minister Donnelly.
She said: “These figures show that 604 dentists have left the scheme since January 2017, and since January 2021, 251 dentists have left.
“In some areas, the situation is particularly stark.
“The number of dentists participating in the scheme has halved since 2021 in Wexford, Meath and Laois/Offaly, while in Dublin South East, only seven dentists remain in the scheme, a drop of 47 since 2016.
“It is clear from these figures that the scheme is close to collapse, yet we seem no closer to the reform needed to ensure that all medical card holders have access to dental treatments.
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