Nearly three quarters of 15 year olds are suffering from tooth decay and the situation is likely to worsen due to cutbacks in public dental schemes, a leading expert said today.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Irish Dental Association in Kilkenny this morning, Dr Rosarii McCafferty, president of the Public Dental Surgeons Group, told delegates of high levels of tooth decay in young children.
Between one-third and a half of children aged up to 5 years suffer from tooth decay. By the age of 12, over 55 per cent of youngsters are affected by the problem, she added.
Dr McCafferty warned that recent cutbacks in public dental schemes would reduce the number of school going children that can be seen by a public dentist and this would lead to worsening standards of oral health amongst children.
“Unfortunately, the public dental service has suffered badly from the recruitment embargos imposed by the HSE over the last number of years. We are aware that in some dental areas, access for
children to preventive dental services has been severely limited due to loss of staff. This means that the problem is simply pushed into the future, when it will be more costly and complex to treat," she said.
The Irish Dental Association represents close to 1,400 professionals in Ireland.
