Dental treatment for medical card holders takes hit

DENTAL treatment for medical card holders is under threat as increasing numbers of dentists resign from the scheme.

More and more dentists are leaving the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS) meaning medical card holders are facing increased delays for treatment, the Irish Dental Association (IDA) has said.

President-elect of the IDA Dr Anne O’Neill said the current version of the scheme is under-resourced and too restrictive for patients.

She said the IDA could not put an exact figure on the number of dentists leaving the scheme but said ‘on the ground, we’re hearing that there are quite a few areas now where there would have been five dentists and they are not down to one.’

She added: ‘When the scheme was created back in 1994, it provided basic dental care.

‘If you went in you could get your teeth examined, if you needed to have a few fillings done you could get them done, if you needed to have a tooth out you could have it done.’

‘The current version of the contract is under-resourced, restrictive to the point that patients can’t access the care they need and it supports the extraction of teeth rather than their retention,’ she said.

The Department of Health said yesterday that the HSE has assured Health Minister Stephen Donnelly that ‘no patients have been left without a service following the serving of notice by a small number of dentists to resign from the DTSS’.

‘Smile agus Sláinte, the National Oral Health Policy, which was published in April 2019, provides the groundwork to transform oral health services over the next eight years,’ said the department.

‘The DTSS will need to be revised in order to align it with modern evidence on oral health needs and provision of dental services,’ said the department, adding that it will engage with the IDA on this.