Thousands ‘denied’ proper dental care

HUNDREDS of thousands of people are going without proper dental care because of a “massive” decline in dental treatments provided to medical card patients, the Irish Dental Association (IDA) warned yesterday.

New Health Service Executive (HSE) figures show a 40% decrease in dental cleaning, fillings, extractions and gum extractions provided under the medical card scheme during the first two months of this year — from 227,325 to 137,004.

The figures, released at the IDA annual conference in Cavan, also show more complex treatments, such as root canal work and providing or repairing dentures, are down 69% — from 22,250 to 6,944.