Children “won’t have a tooth left in their heads” if the State doesn’t get act together around HSE dental screenings for primary schools. That’s according to Aontú Cllr Emer Tóibín who says she has firsthand experience of how ‘broken the system is’, saying that her own son wasn’t called for appointment in all 8 years of primary school.
Cllr Tóibín says that her son, now in first year in secondary school, had his first dental screening appointment yesterday under the HSE school screening dental service.”
“During his 8 years in primary school, he was never called for a screening appointment. The fact that he—like hundreds of thousands of other children across the country—was never called for a screening in primary school speaks volumes about how broken the system is. Tooth decay is a terribly serious health issue and can cause lots of other serious health issues”\
“Primary school children should have check-ups in second, fourth and sixth class, however, the system has all but ground to a halt and most children have not and do not get their one and only screening appointment until they are in secondary school. This means that some children are missing out on vital early intervention, resulting in more drastic treatment or, in the worst cases, extractions being required during the formative teenage and early adult years”.
Fittingly, the Irish Dental Association has confirmed there was a backlog of more than 10 years in many parts of the country in accessing the HSE School Dental Screening Services. Unsurprisingly, the backlog continues to lengthen”.
“A 25% drop in public-only dentists over 15 years is a clear sign of government neglect. This isn’t just an administrative failure—it has real consequences for children’s health. The longer we ignore this, the worse the backlog becomes and the more serious the issues become.”
“I raised this crisis in 2022 and I am raising it again today. I am urging the Government to address this as a critical priority, to ensure children are receiving the care they are entitled to under our public dental system to save them from pain and unnecessary and invasive treatments later,” the Aontú Councillor for Meath East said.
Last year, ahead of the annual conference of the Irish Dental Association, CEO Fintan Hourihan, said that over 100,000 children were denied a school dental screening appointment the previous year. Since 1994, Government policy has suggested that primary school children be seen by a dentist in 2nd, 4th and 6th class.
However, despite 208,233 children being eligible for the scheme in 2023 only 104,488 were assessed by a public dentist, a portion of whom were seen for the first time in secondary school, the Irish Dental Association said.
“This is solely down to a shortage of public dentists which is creating a growing backlog in the numbers of children awaiting their first appointment with some children not being seen until secondary school if at all,” they added.
“These latest figures illustrate clearly how the crisis is worsening with the number of children being screened annually, decreasing significantly in the past 5 years. Over 151,392 schoolchildren were assessed in 2019 under the HSE school screening dental service compared with only 104,488 in 2023. This represents a 31% reduction in schoolchildren screened despite a 7.3% increase in population. This comes as the number of dentists working within the public service has dropped by 24% since 2006, from 330 to 251 whole-time-equivalents (WTEs) in 2023.”
The Irish Dental Association said that Government “continues to have a blind spot when it comes to oral health services”.
“This is indicative through the numbers hired into HSE dental services over the past number of years compared to the wider health service. A department of health report shows that the workforce population of public dentists declined by 23% between 2006 and 2022 compared with a 52% increase in non-consultant hospital doctors, a 43.5% increase in consultants, a 37.2% increase in HSE admin staff and a 20% increase in nursing staff between 2012 and 2022,” the represenative body stated.
Cllr Tóibín said that “Aontú is always mindful of the need to get value for the taxpayer but if the government continually fails to provide an attractive and appropriate salary to public dentists, things will not and cannot change. Unfilled vacancies in our public services are now the norm with staff burnout & retention issues on the increase. Who wants to join a system where stress and frustration are guaranteed? Longer waiting lists means patients, especially children, suffer the most,” she said.
“Privatisation by default, means families who can afford it have to go privately, deepening inequality”.\
“Government inaction on recruitment and retention has essential services to the brink. It cannot continue to ignore this crisis. If they don’t offer competitive salaries, improved working conditions, and real incentives, public services will collapse even further”.
“This pattern is replicated across children mental health and disability services also. The cost of not front-loading public services generates a far greater cost to the healthcare user and the public purse down the line. Cutting corners today means paying far more in crisis management later—both in terms of taxpayer money and human suffering. We pay taxes for this service, yet the service is not there.”
“Thankfully the Dentist picked up on an issue with my Son’s teeth yesterday and gave him the necessary treatment, thus preventing the issue from developing into a more serious, potentially painful and expensive problem”.
“Other children are not so lucky, and this is a disgraceful situation,” she said.