I’ve had lots of cash extracted over the years
‘YANK ’em out,’ was the attitude of Irish dentists for much of the last century.
During the dark ages of Irish dentistry, I’ve been strapped in a chair and had a knee pressed into my chest to yank out teeth that could have been saved.
Millions of Irish teeth could have been saved by root-canal treatment, for example, that was standard practice in other countries long before it arrived here.
It’s really not rocket science. Endodontics, as the specialisation is called, was first developed in the 19th century in the US.
Yet over a hundred years later, it still was not generally available in Ireland.
According to its own website, ‘The Irish Endodontic Society was founded in 1988 at a meeting in a night-club, in Power’s Hotel in Kildare Street (Dublin)’.
The attendees were described as ‘30 interested dentists’ – rather than fully qualified endodontists.
For years after that date – in my experience anyway – when a filling failed, the default option for the average Irish dentist remained: ‘Yank out the tooth.’
I lost two priceless large molars without any alternatives even being discussed. When root-canal dentistry did finally arrive in this country in earnest after 2000, one enterprising pioneer apparently became so rich that his practice was located on one of the most expensive streets in Ireland.
I was referred to him for my first root canal.
In fairness, he did a good, if time-consuming job, but charged me a princely sum for his work – the equivalent of thousands of euros in today’s money.
The price has come down since then, though not by that much.
More recently, Irish dentistry has discovered implants – many decades after the practice of implants was developed elsewhere.
You drill a hole in the jaw and implant a base. Bone is allowed to grow around this and then a new tooth is screwed in.
In engineering terms, it’s a pretty basic concept that technicians in various fields would have carried out for hundreds of years.
Yet few Irish dentists provide this service and where they do, it is usually at a very high cost.