Dental Council faced scrapping in Oireachtas over service

AN Oireachtas committee considered recommending the scrapping of the Dental Council because its failings led to a major crisis in orthodontic services.

However, a subcommittee of the joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children decided not to go quite that far, chairwoman Fiona O’Malley revealed yesterday.

“Instead we felt the Dental Council could do with reform and we are making suggestions in that regard,” said Ms O’Malley. The committee’s proposals for a radical shake-up of orthodontic services and training will go before both houses of the Oireachtas today.

Ms O’Malley claimed that waiting lists statistics were “totally unreliable” and had been “massaged to suit the purposes of regional health boards”.

The subcommittee’s report deals in detail with the need to train more orthodontists to work in the public sector in the wake of the acrimonious ending of regional training services. Ms O’Malley said one training regime had operated successfully in the mid-west for a number of years and “was collapsed because it was so successful”.

“The service operated by Ted McNamara was excellent. In fact, it was too good and threatened the income of private orthodontists.”

The orthodontic service in the mid-west started in 1985 and developed rapidly until 1998, when 2,500 patients were undergoing treatment. The service was developed by Mr McNamara, who was training dentists in orthodontics until approval for training was withdrawn.

The result was longer waiting lists. “We have hit a crisis. Things have got to change,” she added.

The committee recommends the introduction of a grading system like that in operation in Britain. Called the Index of Treatment Need, it grades patients from zero to five according to severity.