Sir, – In response to Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill’s recent comments expressing concern that dentists are choosing to work in aesthetic medicine rather than treating children, it is important to acknowledge the long-standing lack of government investment in public dental services in Ireland (“State-trained dentists ‘should be treating children, not doing Botox injections’,” January 22nd).
Following austerity measures introduced around Budget 2010, funding for the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS), which serves PRSI and medical card holders, was drastically reduced. Between 2010 and 2015, expenditure under the Dental Treatment Benefit Scheme for PRSI contributors fell from about €62 million to about €10 million.
The Irish Dental Association has estimated that, over the longer term, public spending on dental care for PRSI and medical card patients declined by about €800 million between 2009 and 2023.
These reductions have had predictable consequences. In 2017, about 1,660 dentists participated in the medical card/DTSS scheme. By January 2022, that figure had fallen to around 660 – a loss of about 1,000 dentists from the public system.
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Chronic underfunding of dental education has further compounded the problem. In recent years, a significant proportion of undergraduate dental places have been allocated to non-EU fee-paying students, limiting access for Irish and EU applicants, despite the fact that most of these graduates do not practise in Ireland.
Finally, the proposed new dental school and university hospital for University College Cork, which received planning permission in 2019, has since been abandoned due to a lack of government funding.
Against this backdrop, criticism of dentists’ career choices risks deflecting attention from sustained policy failures that have undermined public dental care. – Yours, etc,
Dr SARAH KATE QUINLIVAN,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
