28% drop in State sending on dental care in South Tipperary

The Irish Dental Association (IDA) has said that dental treatment in South Tipperary for medical card holders is in “complete chaos”, warning that the unprecedented number of dentists withdrawing from the outdated Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS) is having serious repercussions for patients.

Between 2017 and 2020, State spending on dental care for medical card patients in South Tipperary decreased by 28%, from €1,764,161.36 to €1,276,749.88.

Concurrently, the number of DTSS contracts held by dentists in South Tipperary fell by 17%, from 30 to 25 between March 2017 and January 2021.

The DTSS provides access to limited dental treatment for adult medical card holders. The IDA believes members should individually consider courses of action that are open to them.

Speaking today, Dr Will Rymer, a member of the GP Committee of the IDA, said that the fall in funding and participating dentists in South Tipperary was hugely damaging for patients and reflected a nationwide trend.

“In 2020, almost one quarter of participating dentists nationwide left the scheme which is utterly unfit for purpose. Dentists simply cannot afford to participate.”

He said that the nature of the medical card crisis in dentistry was unprecedented in scale and dentists were disillusioned with the Government’s lack of action on the matter.

“We have sought to engage with the Department of Health to modify this scheme over many years to no avail. Increasingly, our members believe that the refusal to acknowledge this reality and the general approach of the Department of Health suggests a level of disrespect, if not contempt, for medical card patients in South Tipperary and the dentists contracted to care for them. It also shows scant regard or understanding of the impact of this crisis on vulnerable patients who are unable to afford access to vital dental care.”

Dr Rymer said that significant extra costs being incurred by general dental practices during the Covid-19 pandemic are making the existing DTSS contracted service completely unviable. “Dentists want to be able to provide care for medical card patients, but the Government is leaving them with little choice but to minimise their involvement or withdraw.

Because of the drop-off in funding and dentists’ participation, he said that medical card patients were now faced with:

Delays while seeking treatment;

Increased travel times while seeking that treatment; and

Possible reliance on the already underfunded public dental service to provide care in areas where DTSS contracts are not in place.

The IDA is the representative body for 2,000 dentists (public and private) practising in Ireland.