Children face further delays over failure to fill dental jobs
More than 7,000 children are awaiting either orthodontic assessment or treatment in the Southern Health Board area but efforts to attract consultants to work in Cork and Kerry have failed. The Cork position, to cover the north Cork/north Lee area, where 1,813 children are awaiting assessment and a further 1,206 are on a treatment waiting list, was advertised two years ago, but after protracted negotiations, the successful candidate declined to take up the post. In Kerry, no eligible candidate was found. The shortage of orthodontists is compounded by a block on the Cork Dental School training dentists to orthodontic level until a Professor of Orthodontics is appointed. The post has been offered to a candidate and once he is in situ, training at the school can recommence. The school lost its training accreditation in 1999 following a visit from the London-based Royal College of Surgeons.
Consultant orthodontist and head of orthodontics in the SHB, Ian O’Dowling, said the delay in appointing an orthodontist had meant further delays in assessing children. “If you’re told somebody new is going to start, then you are not going to take on new patients in the area that he will be dealing with, because the average treatment time is two years.
