More than a quarter of patients waiting for dental care under general anaesthetic (GA) have a disability or additional needs, new figures show.
The Irish Dental Association (IDA) on Thursday released new data on waiting lists for GA dental work, which includes having teeth pulled and complex dental surgery.
These procedures are carried out in a number of locations, but mostly in hospitals.
The association said 27.5 per cent of all patients waiting for dental GA are special care patients, equalling 1,801 patients in total.
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Nearly half (49 per cent) of special care patients are waiting more than 12 months for treatment, which equates to 883 patients. .
Children are particularly affected by the waiting lists, the figures show. Children make up over half of all patients waiting for dental treatment under general anaesthetic, with nearly 3,500 children waiting for this.
Some 1,450 children (42 per cent) have been waiting over a year, with many likely waiting significantly longer. All children on the waiting list in the midwest (672) were waiting more than 12 months.
The southwest has the highest number of children waiting, with 979 children on lists.
The IDA said these waits occur during critical developmental years, increasing risks of pain, infection, missed schooling and emergency presentations.
The figures were released in advance of the IDA’s annual conference in Killarney on Thursday.
Dr Bridget Harrington-Barry, president of the IDA, called for beds to be ring-fenced for special care patients to tackle the backlog.
“Following sustained difficulties in securing consistent access to capacity in my own clinic in University Hospital Galway, last year we ring-fenced a service for my paediatric special care patients,” she said.
“The initiative has been a major success, and we have since not been required to cancel paediatric special care procedures. This new data shows that we urgently need to ringfence beds across the country to combat special care waiting lists. We also need to extend the initiative to include vulnerable adult patients.”
Harrington-Barry said it is “vital” that patients with additional needs are “treated with the dignity they deserve”.
In response to a parliamentary question in January, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said there are “challenges in the provision of dental services, including for children, and patients are waiting longer than they should have to, to access care”.
The Department of Health said it has invested more than €240 million annually in the provision of oral healthcare but progress reforming the service was “impacted by the pandemic among other things” and has been “slower than anticipated”.
The HSE is developing a three-year implementation plan on reforming the services and this plan will be “finalised and published in the coming months”.
