ANTONIA R. HEWSON,
Sir, - I refer to Sylvia Thompson's article on public orthodontic services. She refers to me as "Chief Dental Surgeon of the Western Health Board". I am not. I am Principal Dental Surgeon for Mayo, but as I made clear at the beginning of my Oireachtas submission, I was appearing in a personal capacity.
Ms Thompson refers to "older, more inclusive" guidelines that have "resulted in longer waiting lists for both assessments and treatment". These are the official Department of Health 1985 guidelines compiled when no public orthodontic services existed in this country. They are acknowledged to allow approximately 15 per cent of children eligibility for treatment. These guidelines have not resulted in longer waiting lists.
I believe that this has occurred as a direct result of the Department of Health withdrawing support from its own very successful public orthodontic service where productivity and quality were of the highest standard (as confirmed by independent audit).
Ms Thompson quotes international studies that confirm "33 per cent of adolescents need orthodontic treatment". Children treated in the public orthodontic services are at the severest end of the scale. In times of unprecedented prosperity it is inexplicable that the Department of Health is seeking to deprive even more genuinely eligible children orthodontic services to which they are entitled.
The public orthodontic services have the potential to treat more, not fewer, children. The Department of Health is ignoring the rights and needs of eligible children. Is it being influenced by groups with interests in no way sympathetic to the provision of a successful public orthodontic service? -
Yours, etc.,
ANTONIA R. HEWSON,
Principal Dental Surgeon,
Castle Road,
Ballina,
Co Mayo.
