THE shocking news that a teenager has been waiting 11 years to get the braces that were deemed necessary in second class, should not really be shocking at all, given the history of Ireland’s dental service in recent years.
But that sentence about an 11-year wait for treatment, of any kind, for a child is, indeed, shocking.
Still, a cursory trawl back through the Star archives in recent years shows plenty of stories of a similar nature.
‘HSE jobs freeze leaves gaps in dental service’ was the headline from just over a year ago – in February of 2024.
It was reported then that there were just 2.6 dentists covering the entire West Cork region, an area said to be the equivalent of a region stretching from Dublin to Kilkenny.
The service in West Cork was better ten years before that, said then-senator Tim Lombard.
In the past, children saw the dentist in first, third and sixth class, he pointed out.
But now, only children in sixth class are offered an appointment, and this shift has resulted in the current sixth class pupils having missed out on vital routine treatment like fissure seals, he said.
At the time, members of the West Cork Municipal District of Cork County Council had requested that a letter be sent to the HSE to find out what could be done to halt what they called ‘the serious decline’ in the service.
So much for that. Over a year later, and there is still no improvement. The only clinics for children in the region are still only in Bantry and Clonakilty.
We also heard this week that a Bandon dentist who was out of work for 14 months was never replaced.
And, as was pointed out last year too, Cllr Finbarr Harrington said this week that, ironically, many of the HSE’s primary care centres in the region have dental facilities in place, but there isn’t anyone to staff them.
As was noted by this newspaper last year, the failure to treat teeth and gum problems in youth can lead to a wide-ranging impact on general health in later life, from a risk of Alzheimer’s, to diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
In early December 2023, Cllr Caroline Cronin had remarked that over the previous few years, 50% of dental clinics for children in the area – namely Skibbereen, Schull, and Castletownbere – had closed, leaving just Bantry, Dunmanway, and Clonakilty operational.
Since then, Dunmanway has gone by the wayside too, now leaving just two clinics for the whole area, meaning the two locations’ waiting lists have been swollen by the added pressure.
It is a very sad state of affairs when one of the western world’s wealthiest countries – as remarked by various politicians seeking election last November – has to turn away children seeking basic dental treatment and assessment, due to a lack of an adequate service.
This week’s meeting was told that the HSE has reiterated its commitment to prioritise securing a dental surgeon for the Schull clinic.
The HSE also says that the screening of sixth class children is on target in West Cork and they expect to start screening second class children later this year, according to Cllr Cronin.
But that is little comfort to the hundreds of schoolchildren who missed their opportunity before moving onto secondary or, in some cases, leaving education altogether.
As remarked in the Council chamber this week, once upon a time the school dentist was available to all of us, in national school.
There were no state-of-the-art dental clinics in primary care centres – there weren’t even primary care centres.
And yet the system seemed to work, and stories of long waiting lists or parents having to fork out for expensive treatment as a result of delays, were few and far between.
In an asset-rich, modern country such as Ireland, no child should have to go without basic medical care.
It is a shocking indictment of our supposedly world-class health system.
