Fixing Ireland's dental crisis will take 10 years given scale of problem, Dáil committee told

The public Dental Treatment Services Scheme currently treats just 970,000 patients annually out of an eligible cohort of 1.6 million adults, largely due to a lack of eligible dentists signing up to the scheme, as it is considered to be severely underfunded.

Fixing Ireland’s dental crisis will take at least 10 years given the sheer scale of the problem, particularly in schools, the Oireachtas Health Committee has heard.

The committee on Wednesday morning heard from representatives of the Irish Dental Association, who, while relating harrowing case studies, said Ireland’s public dental schemes had not been fit for purpose for more than 10 years.