Children waiting up to 5 years for dental treatments, union claims

DENTAL services have become a “postcode lottery” in Ireland according to the head of the Irish Dental Union (IDU).

Revealing how special needs and children who need dental treatment are on waiting lists for as long as five years in some places, Fintan Hourihan said that the denial of services is attributable to the ban on recruitment in the HSE.

Branding the curtailment of dental services for children and adult special needs as “inexcusable”, Mr Hourihan said the standard of care and services across the country now varied greatly depending on where you live.

An IDU conference heard that cutbacks have led to huge delays in school screenings for orthodontic treatment in some counties, and that some vital services have been suspended in other places

According to the IDU:

- Children under 16 are now waiting up to five years for orthodontic treatment in north Dublin.

- Schoolchildren in Cavan are not seeing their dentist for their initial school screening check-up until sixth class.

- Children in Sligo are waiting for six months before receiving dental treatments which require the provision of general anaesthesia.

- All high-risk adult special needs patients in the greater Dublin area have had the provision of general anaesthesia suspended until next January.

- Adult special needs patients in Cork face three-year waiting lists before they can receive treatments requiring the provision of general anaesthesia.

Mr Hourihan said: “These are just a selection of the many ways in which children up to 16 and special needs patients are being denied essential preventive dental care. Regrettably, all the evidence shows that failure to screen dental problems and arrange treatments at an early stage will inevitably cause significant deterioration in the dental health of such patients.

“These two vulnerable groups are losing out due to the refusal to replace dentists, dental nurses and other key support staff.

“Also, dental staff are now being asked to care for adult medical card holders who are being denied dental treatments due to swingeing cutbacks in the medical card scheme, which is really only managing to offer limited emergency care at present.”

Mr Hourihan said the IDU, which is the representative body for the entire dental profession, was calling on the HSE to carry out a comprehensive audit of the dental services currently available to children and special needs patients.

“Denying our children and special needs patients proper dental care is a shocking indictment of our healthcare system,” he said.