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.

IDA vice-president elect, Dr Andrew Bolas, said the Government must reinstate the medical card scheme in full as promised in the Programme for Government.

HSE figures showed 90,000 fewer treatments in the first two months of the year, which was the equivalent to 540,000 in a full year. Dr Bolas warned the situation would lead to significant expenditure in future with patients needing more extensive treatment.

“The new Government promised to reinstate the medical card scheme and to review the PRSI dental scheme and the IDA is calling on the minister to deliver on these promises as a matter of urgency,” he said.

Dr Bolas pointed out that the Government promised to fill the vacant post of chief dental officers as soon as possible. “It beggars belief that this country has not had a chief medical officer for almost a decade,” he said.

The IDA said the staff moratorium imposed on the HSE meant dental departments were unable to carry out necessary checks on schoolchildren due to under-staffing.

Dr Bolas said the situation was even worse for those with special needs as the moratorium was preventing many areas from having a senior dentist trained in dealing with the complex needs they present.

“The problem is how much it will cost in a few years — in human and financial terms,” he said.