A chara, – Further to Ann Marie Hourihane's article "Cinderella of public dental health braces itself for a cultural shift" (Health + Family, March 11th), over the last number of years, public dental services have been decimated.
Falling staff numbers, due to the recruitment embargo, and retirement, have had a hugely negative effect on the everyday operation of the service, with the decreased availability of service to patients, and target class primary school screenings in some areas, simply not being met. Where services have been reduced, we have seen an increase in patients presenting with pain and infection, necessitating complex treatment, and, in certain circumstances, acute hospital admission, a reprehensible consequence of the circumstances which now prevail, and simply unacceptable for a first world country. Waiting lists for oral surgery and treatment of both children and special needs patients under general anaesthesia continue to soar due to lack of resources and facilities.
While the introduction of orthodontic therapists, as alluded to in the article, may expedite treatment in some cases, the basics have been overlooked. Many orthodontic issues could be flagged and possibly intercepted earlier if the manpower was available to see and treat children more frequently, with the emphasis put on the maintenance of a decay-free primary dentition, which could, in turn, reduce the bottleneck which now exists, particularly in the provision of care under general anaesthesia.
At the annual general meeting of the Public Dental Surgeons Group of the Irish Dental Association in October 2013, this group called on the HSE to ensure adequate dental staffing in all areas, to allow patients access equitable services, irrespective of geographical location, thereby safeguarding their oral health. This group also called on the Department of Health and the HSE to ensure appropriate and timely provision of dental general anaesthetic services for children and special care patients in order to avoid unnecessary delays in treating pain, sepsis and dental trauma. These requests remain.
To no other profession does the old adage “A stitch in time saves nine” ring more true. Dental decay is the most prevalent, preventable disease worldwide. The simple messages of maintaining adequate oral hygiene and reducing frequency of intake of sugar remain to the forefront in the constant battle against it. – Is mise,
Dr ISEULT
BOUARROUDJ, BDS
President,
Public Dental
Surgeons Committee,
Irish Dental Association,
Belvedere Hills,
Ballinderry,
Mullingar, Co Westmeath.