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12 Dec 2025
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12 Dec 2025
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Between 2017 and 2020, State spending on dental care for medical card patients in the North Tipperary / East Limerick decreased by 25%, from €1,091,905.14 to €823,846.11.
Between 2017 and 2020, State spending on dental care for medical card patients in the North Tipperary / East Limerick decreased by 25%, from €1,091,905.14 to €823,846.11.
The Irish Dental Association (IDA) has said that dental treatment in North 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for medical card holders is in “complete chaos”, warning that the unprecedented number of dentists withdrawing from the outdated Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS) is having serious repercussions for patients.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 the North Tipperary / East Limerick decreased by 25%, from €1,091,905.14 to €823,846.11.
Concurrently, the number of DTSS contracts held by dentists in the area fell by 10%, from 31 to 28 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.
Dr Will Rymer, a member of the GP Committee of the IDA, said that the fall in funding and participating dentists in the area 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 North 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.
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