Dentists warn of 'clear divide' between people accessing private dentistry and those in public care
There is now 'a clear divide' between people who can afford private dentistry and those facing delays in public care, the Irish Dental Association (IDA) has warned.
Children and adults with disabilities waiting for care under general anesthesia face delays of two years or more, including in areas across Munster.
Dental screening in schools was also missed by almost half the children eligible due to a critical shortage of dentists.
Dentists say that scheme for adult medical card holders has 'effectively collapsed": the scheme is down 800 dentists compared to 2012 despite the population of Ireland surging by 15% since then.
The two dental schools in Cork and Dublin are also not producing enough graduates to fill staffing gaps.
The demand for more dentists is such that over 1,000 applications for 20 places were received by a new dental school opening in Dublin this year, according to IDA chief executive Fintan Hourihan.
"There's a clear divide between people who have the option of going privately and people who would otherwise rely on State-funded assistance to see private dentists," Mr Hourihan said.
Funding cuts
A key issue is the under-funding of services since the recession years, he added.
The IDA pointed to a cut in State spending on dental care for PRSI and medical card patients amounting to €800m between 2009 and 2023.
'There's been a downward trend in funding,' he said.
'And with the medical card in particular, it's becoming harder for patients to see a dentist — they have to wait longer, travel further.'
Dentistry has 'never gone back to the spending levels that were there in 2009', he added.
In 2023, 104,000 school children missed out on school dentistry checks where problems can be picked up early.
Earlier this year, the Irish Examiner highlighted a crisis in access to general anaesthesia for children and adults with disabilities.
Mr Hourihan said there has been no changes despite efforts by the HSE to boost services. One barrier is a shortage of consultant anaesthetists.
'The west of Ireland is probably one of the best for this, and they have a two-year waiting list,' he said.
"In the east and in the south I believe it is considerably in excess of three years, the last time I checked. These are very vulnerable children and adults," he added.
IDA president Will Rymer called for the state's new oral health policy — Smile agus Sláinte — to be backed by funding. The three-year oral health implementation plan is included in the Programme for Government.
'We are calling on the Government to fully fund oral health services in order to make up for a lost decade in dental care, representing a running deficit of €800m in investment,' he said.
'The failure of consecutive Governments to fully fund oral healthcare services has only increased the outstanding burden of treatment needed across the country.'
Dentists want to see a system which values prevention as much as treatment, he urged, adding this needs to be accessible to everyone.
'Under the current system, there is a widening gap between those who can afford to access dentistry by private means and those who are left at the mercy of a public system which is underfunded and not fit for purpose,' he warned.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Irish Independent
Public hospitals asked to account for funding allocated towards waiting lists in wake of CHI funding scandal
It follows the temporary pausing of funding due to Children's Health Ireland for doing additional clinics and procedures with additional money. It followed recent revelations in an internal CHI report from 2021 which found the selection of patients for these extra clinics was was not done fairly by one consultant who earned over €34,000 for the additional work. The NTPF has €230m this year to distribute among public hospitals to either do additional in-house work to reduce waiting lists or send patients to paid-for private hospital care. The NTPF said today that it is 'completely unacceptable that there would be any misuse of public money and that children would wait longer for surgery when the whole purpose of the NTPF is to ensure faster access to treatment for public patients'. "The NTPF will fully reserve its position in relation to any proven misuse of public money and explore all options for restitution while ensuring public patients get the treatment they deserve. 'Following initial reports, the NTPF immediately placed a temporary pause on all insourcing work with CHI while it initiated a review of this work to gather the necessary assurances regarding compliance, value for money and appropriate use of NTPF funding mechanisms.' The statement said that this work is 'ongoing at the highest level with CHI to obtain and review these assurances'. "It is important to stress that all pre-planned insourcing work has continued with CHI and the intention is that the temporary pause will be lifted as soon as the NTPF is satisfied with the assurances given by CHI in this review so as to minimise any disruption to children and their families. 'Fears that thousands of children will face surgery delays are not correct and NTPF-funded insourcing accounts for a very small proportion of total work undertaken by CHI,' it said. In the year to date, the NTPF was funding an average of approximately four surgeries (inpatient or day-case) per week and an average of 115 outpatient consultations-initial appointments with a consultant-per week through insourcing with CHI, it said . 'Every appointment is extremely important though and the NTPF wishes to be in a position to safely and confidently lift the pause as quickly as possible.'
Agriland
a day ago
- Agriland
Tillage: Irish wheat crops and the threat of yellow rust
The jury is still out on whether or not wheat crops grown in Ireland this year have succumbed to a yellow rust genetic breakdown, as seems to have been the case in the UK. According to Teagasc tillage specialist, Shay Phelan: 'The yellow rust issue is being investigated at the present time. 'Whatever the outcome of the work, it seems safe to conclude that the growing of wheat will become a more expensive operation into the future.' Meanwhile, the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB) in the UK is advising farmers not to rely on the current yellow rust disease resistance information published in the organisation's recommended list (RL) information sheets. Unusual activity was first seen in late March in an RL fungicide-untreated trial near Sunderland in the north-east of England. At this site, several varieties had yellow rust symptoms despite being classified as resistant to the disease at the young plant stage on the RL (2025/26). Paul Gosling, who manages the RL at AHDB, said: 'Following discussions with plant breeders, we suspected that an important yellow rust resistance gene – Yr15 – had potentially been overcome. 'We subsequently observed similar resistance-breakdown patterns more widely in RL trials, starting in southern Scotland before spreading down the eastern coast of England, down as far as East Anglia.' Trial operators sent diseased leaf samples from the affected RL trial sites near Sunderland and Berwick-upon-Tweed for analysis by the AHDB-funded UK Cereal Pathogen Virulence Survey. The National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB)-led service confirmed that Yr15 gene had failed. Pathogen isolates from these samples not only infected a test variety known to carry the Yr15 resistance gene but went on to sporulate profusely. NIAB-funded work using molecular markers also confirmed the presence of the Yr15 gene in several of the varieties impacted at the young-plant stage. The initial tests prioritised testing of varieties with a strong level of adult plant stage resistance (disease rating 8 or 9), according to RL 2025/26. These tests found that the Hard Group 4 varieties KWS Dawsum, LG Typhoon and Champion carry the Yr15 gene. NIAB is currently testing a wider range of varieties, with further genetic screening also being done by the John Innes Centre in Norwich and the Global Rust Reference Centre in Denmark. The Yr15 resistance gene, which was discovered in the 1980s, confers broad-spectrum resistance against genetically diverse yellow rust isolates (from a large worldwide collection of more than 3,000) and was an important line of defence. Gosling added: 'Adult plant resistance has clearly taken a knock, but the full impact will depend on a myriad of other resistance genes, which vary from variety to variety. 'Some varieties appear to be fighting back, whereas others are recording unusually high disease levels.' 'Although we have not seen the unusual symptoms towards the south or the west, it appears to be spreading fast. 'No doubt it will impact on variety choice and disease management across the UK next season.'
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Irish Independent
The Irish Independent's View: Great shame we do not have the legislation needed to underpin vital care of older people
One of the critical failings exposed then was the complete lack of focus in government agencies towards meeting the complex needs of older people. Then as now, they remain the key adult demographic for health and social care services. To hear two decades later that patients can still be badly mistreated, having their dignity and most basic needs ignored, is a terrible indictment of the State's commitment to the care of the very people who served it all their lives. Mr O'Donnell said there is a commitment for a national policy on safeguarding for adults in the Programme for Government and he wants this brought to the Cabinet before the summer recess. Most people will be astonished such a policy is not in place to protect people who may be vulnerable. Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan has said the Government is committed to developing the policy. But what does it say about respect for our people that such critical protections have not already been built into the infrastructure of care? Unless agencies have the necessary legal powers to enforce compliance, the potential for abuse will continue 'Even if there is one person being abused, that is a serious incident that should be followed up immediately,' said Safeguarding Ireland chairperson Patricia Rickard-Clarke. She appealed to the Government to implement the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission's report from last year. This would put a critical legal framework in place, she said. Former INMO chief Liam Doran said he felt shame, sadness, frustration and anger over the revelations in the RTÉ report. 'Looking at people who have served this country, have worked for this country and have shown fortitude much more than the modern generation, and that's how we treat them. Shame, shame on all of us,' he said. We have waited too long for the vital legislation needed to underpin the care of older people. Unless agencies have the necessary legal powers to enforce compliance, the potential for abuse will continue. Seán Moynihan of charity Alone has expressed fears that Ireland is 'walking into the privatisation of nursing homes', where economics seems more important than the rights of the older person. For older people to be left frightened by institutional failings is indefensible. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote: 'The first 40 years of life give us the text – the next 30 supply the commentary on it.' And what a sad commentary it is on our society that once again we have been found wanting when it comes to taking care of our older citizens. There are no excuses and no exceptions, for as the poet Gertrude Stein put it: 'We are always the same age inside.'
