Teenager to get dentures as entitlement to fillings runs out

Dentists are calling on the Government to reverse cuts to the HSE's dental budget after it emerged a 16-year-old girl will need dentures as she is not entitled to any more fillings under her medical card.

Like thousands of medical card holders across the country, the teenager from Wicklow is entitled to just two "emergency" fillings a year under a restricted list of treatments imposed by the HSE in 2010.

The restriction means dentists are left with no option but to remove teeth that could be saved if the ban on fillings were lifted.

CEO of the Irish Dental Association Fintan Hourihan said the extractions in the case of the Wicklow teenager would cost the HSE and the State more in the long term.

"She went to her dentist, who prescribed a course of treatment which would allow her to keep as many teeth as possible and have a number of fillings instead (but) the HSE has rules which limit the number of fillings," he said.

"The HSE approved a plan which ironically is going to prove more expensive for the HSE which would involve extracting more than a dozen teeth."