A national shortage of dentists means children are missing key appointments and having teeth extracted because of advanced decay. 

Irish Dental Association CEO Fintan Hourihan described the problem as a “real scandal” and said key targets are consistently being missed.

“Since 1994, there has been a policy that primary school children should be seen three times before the age of 12,” he told The Pat Kenny Show.

“[It was] usually second, fourth and sixth class where they’re screened, they meet the dentist, the parents are often involved as well and what we’ve seen over the last 10 years is that number of patients and number of children has increased by a quarter, the number of dentists has fallen by a quarter.

“We have a huge shortage in the service.”

Mr Hourihan said it was now “quite unusual” for children to get all three check-ups – and in some parts of the country they could be well into secondary school before they do.

He said this has “huge consequences” for families and a range of benefits are lost.

“You don’t have a chance to meet the dentist and learn about good oral health practice [and] good nutrition,” he said.

“It often means then that small problems become big problems or the diagnosis of, say, dental decay is missed.”

Dental care for a child.

Mr Hourihan said the value of regular checkups is “beyond dispute” because it helps catch problems early.

“We need more dentists to get in and see children at an early stage to make sure that problems are seen early, [so] that their dental health improves and that we avoid the unpleasant experience that they are now seeing when they have to attend a dentist and they have to have extractions rather than having teeth saved and they have to have far more expensive treatments," he said.

“So, it’s a real scandal that in this day and age, 30 years after this policy was introduced, we’re not even managing to have children seen in primary school at all in some parts of the country.”

Mr Hourihan said there is a problem “all over the country” but some areas are worse off.

“The only difference is the severity of the problem,” he said.

“It’s particularly bad in certain areas - such as Laois and Offaly - but it’s bad everywhere.”

In January this year, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly told TDs, “A total of €5 million is being invested on a once-off basis to support the provision of care to eligible children and adults, including addressing the backlogs in targeted primary school class programmes.”

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Main image: A child at the dentist. Picture by: Alamy.com