Disabled left without dental service

THOUSANDS of disabled adults in the south have been unable to have a basic dental check-up for more than six months — and there is no sign of their dental scheme being resurrected.

Dental problems are more prevalent amongst the intellectually disabled and general anaesthetics are required to complete the smallest procedures as many such patients are scared or physically incapable of sitting still in the dental chair.

Due to the withdrawal of the full general anaesthetic service at the UCC School of Dentistry at Cork University Hospital, the group can’t even have their teeth examined, cleaned or fillings completed.

Funding for the service is provided by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

A HSE spokeswoman said yesterday that talks have taken place between UCC dental school and the HSE and another meeting is to be scheduled.

However, she confirmed the service was still not in place. Only those requiring extractions are now entitled to a general anaesthetic.

The Cope Foundation, which provides educational and training facilities to about 1,600 disabled people, has described the withdrawal of services at the hospital as an “attack on the rights of a vulnerable group”.

The Director of the National Parents and Siblings Alliance branded the HSE move “unbelievable”.

The Irish Dental Association has made its concerns known to the HSE about the lack of services for the intellectually disabled. The association has said that publicly-funded dental services are suffering as there has been no chief dental officer at the Department of Health since 2004.

The option of going private isn’t available to adults with intellectual disabilities because even if their families can foot the bill, only dentists attached to hospitals tend to take on such high-risk work.

According to the dental association, giving an anaesthetic to a cerebral palsy sufferer is high risk and so it is preferable that they have the back-up facilities of a hospital nearby.