More than 100,000 children will be denied essential dental check-up appointments at school in 2023, which could lead to “irreparable harm”, according to the Irish Dental Association.
The union said public dental services were suffering from a “worsening crisis” due to the shortage of dentists and required immediate resources.
Primary school children should see a dentist in Years 2, 4 and 6 as part of the HSE school dental screening service, however just half (104,488) of the 208,233 eligible children were assessed by a public dentist last year.
“The school screening service is essential for children’s preventive dental care and all these missed appointments mean huge numbers of children will suffer irreparable damage to their oral health,” the association said.
The refusal of children to get check-ups is solely due to the lack of public dentists, which creates a growing delay in the number of children waiting for their first appointment, he said.
The association added that this backlog results in some children not seeing them for the first time until they reach secondary school, “if at all”.
The number of children tested annually has fallen significantly over the past 5 years, the association said, with more than 151,392 students being assessed in 2019.
This number dropped to 104,488 children assessed in 2023, representing a 31 percent decrease despite a population increase of 7.3 percent.
It comes as the number of dentists working in the public service has fallen by 24 per cent since 2006, from 330 to 251 full-time equivalents (WTEs) in 2023.
The union said the government continued to have a “blind spot” on oral health services, which was highlighted by the numbers being recruited into HSE dental services compared to the wider health service.
“A Department of Health report shows that the population of public dentists in the workforce has fallen by 23 per cent between 2006 and 2022 compared with a 52 per cent increase in non-consultant hospitalists, a 43.5 per cent increase in consultants, a 37. 2 per cent in HSE administrative staff and a 20 per cent increase in nursing staff between 2012 and 2022,” the association said.
Fintan Hourihan, chief executive of the Irish Dental Association, said the HSE had failed in its duty to provide adequate care to patients under the Health Act.
“There is huge uncertainty about the service as the government appears to suggest that children should see private dentists, 90% of whom say the priority should actually be rebuilding the public dental service.”
Mr Hourihan said this “political uncertainty” was causing greater difficulty in recruitment into the public dental service, adding that a commitment to increasing the recruitment of HSE dentists was needed as a priority from Health Secretary Stephen Donnelly.
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty raised the issue in the Dáil on Thursday and said the HSE was clear it could not appoint dentists below consultant level because of the recruitment embargo.
Describing the embargo as “ridiculous”, Mr. Doherty said it meant the government was putting pressure on the system. The screening program had also “collapsed” due to a 50 per cent reduction in the number of public dentists, with a current shortfall of 500.
The government was “preventing our health service from recruiting staff to treat our children, so that one in two of them is left without what they are entitled to” and was “punishing” families who could not afford private care.
Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue, who represents the Tánaiste, said the Government is investing €200 million a year in oral health care and this goes to those most in need. It included an additional €15 million in core funding to help the national health policy ‘Smile agus Sláinte’ and an additional €17 million in one-off funding to address service delays.
He added that the HSE is developing oral healthcare packages for children from birth to the age of seven with €4.7 million in the budget for this. There has also been additional investment in tackling orthodontic waiting lists and prioritizing those waiting longer. In 2023 more than 2,000 patients were removed from the orthodontist waiting list and 3.3 million euros were invested this year for orthodontic lists, he said.
