The Minister for Health has criticised the “drift” of dentists to cosmetic dentistry, including Botox and injectables, rather than to the treatment of children.
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill made her comments in the Dáil as questions were raised by Sinn Féin TD Cathy Bennett about major shortfalls in school dental screening and “extreme waiting times” for orthodontic care.
The Cavan-Monaghan TD said there was no school screening in Monaghan in the 2024-2025 academic year.
“That’s not good enough,” Ms Bennett said. “There is no orthodontist in the northeast region at all. There used to be one in the Monaghan area. People are now being asked to travel to Dundalk, which is not acceptable.”
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She referred to a case in Monaghan “where a child of seven years of age had to get seven extractions done. There was no screening – that could have eliminated them. They could have put a wee filling in and helped with that process”.
Ms Carroll MacNeill said she was “in complete agreement that this simply has to improve”.
“We train dentists at quite a considerable cost to the State. We do that because we want dentists to be available to do dental work, both in private practice and for the State. We want children to have screening,” she said.
The Minister said she was “consistently concerned” about the move to cosmetic dentistry, adding that the Irish Dental Association (IDA) and ADI, the group training dentists, acknowledged the issue.
Pointing out that dentists are being trained in State-funded facilities, she said there was a “drift towards cosmetic dentistry, the scale of practice in injectables, Botox and other things being done by dentists”.
“Of a two-day conference last May by the dental association, one full day was dedicated to injectables. I want to train dentists to do dentistry on children,” Ms Carroll MacNeill.
The Minister acknowledged the “significant challenge” in providing school-based dental programmes and said that, up to last November, more than 138,000 new patients were assessed, including 90,000 under targeted and special care programmes.
She said she was “not happy” that “in many cases screening is delayed, meaning some children do not receive an assessment until they have already entered secondary school, except in emergencies”.
“While the HSE follows up to ensure those children are seen, the situation is simply not good enough,” she said.
A multifaceted response was necessary, requiring “some short-term interventions and meaningful strategic reform”.
The HSE had funding to recruit 15 oral health staff for areas experiencing the greatest delays. Eight have been recruited with recruitment campaigns for three others “currently active”.
She said dental hygienists “can play a much bigger role in preventive and periodontal care” and she had instructed her department “to accelerate the necessary consideration of this matter”, which would require legislation.
