Orthodontic services: There were more than 10,000 children on orthodontic waiting lists awaiting assessment of their condition at the end of last year, according to figures published yesterday.
The figures are contained in a report on the current state of orthodontic treatment services in the State compiled by a subcommittee of the joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children.
It states there were 23,572 children receiving orthodontic treatment in the public orthodontic service at the end of 2004 and a further 10,007 awaiting assessment.
There are likely to be thousands more on waiting lists for treatment after being assessed. The subcommittee's chairwoman, Fiona O'Malley TD, acknowledged children can wait years for treatment.
As reported in The Irish Times Health Supplement on Tuesday, the subcommittee's report recommends the adoption of new criteria for assessing whether children are eligible for treatment or not and that regional training programmes for orthodontists, which operated successfully in the mid-west and other regions up to 1999, be "reinstated immediately".
The report says the Irish Committee for Specialist Training in Dentistry (ICSTD) - which was set up by the Irish Dental Council and is representative of the Dental Council, orthodontists and the Department of Health - had determined that only the dental hospitals in Cork and Dublin were authorised to provide training for orthodontic specialists and therefore the regional training programmes ended.
"This exclusivity has presented an enormous problem for manpower planning and delivery of the country's orthodontic service. The position adopted by the Dental Council on the issue of training is not sustainable and not capable of serving the needs of the country," the report said.
It added that the dental hospital in Cork had not yet trained any orthodontic specialists and the dental hospital in Dublin trains just six a year. Action needed to be taken urgently to address the shortage.
Prof Bernard McCartan of the ICSTD said there was a need for more funding for proper internationally-recognised training programmes, to employ more orthodontists in the regions and to make public-sector jobs more attractive for orthodontists.
He added that the ICSTD had never received an application from the Mid-Western or Southern Health Boards for approval of their orthodontic training schemes, which the subcommittee wanted reinstated.
"The old system was no longer tenable under European law and in any case most of the orthodontic training that took place in the country over the years took place in the two dental schools, one in Cork and one in Dublin," he said.
Prof McCartan expressed concern that the Department of Health had withdrawn the funding it used to provide for training orthodontists, who would in return work for three years in the public sector.
In addition, some health boards did not have money to employ those trained under this scheme after they qualified, he said, which meant they had to work in private practice.
Irish Dental Council registrar Tom Farren rejected claims by Ms O'Malley that the council had a monopoly on training. "It's a slur on the council," he said.