The President of the Irish Dental Association says the scheme for medical-card patients needs to be overhauled.
In the space of 15 months, 239 dentists pulled out of the Dental Treatment Service Scheme, withdrawing between January of 2021 and March of this year.
It means that less than 1,100 dentists are currently signed up.
President of the Irish Dental Association, Caroline Robins of Kiwi Dental Carlow, says it needs a radical overhaul; “If my patient needs gum treatment that’s what I should be able to provide them not be told that I could give them two fillings in a year when they may not need two fillings in a year so it’s a very constrained scheme and I think it’s broken so I think, like an industry or profession, throwing money at it isn’t solving the problem”.
