Making those Vital Connections

By Fintan Hourihan, IDA Chief Executive.

Networking, or simply making connections, is an essential part of advancing in your career as a dentist. But it is also vital for the Association in representing the profession at a time of rapid change.

My experience at FDI, the World Dental Parliament hosted in Istanbul in mid-September showed the importance of connecting at a national or global level. Meanwhile our highly successful Starting Dentistry event in Dublin in the same week showed how important it is for individual dentists to get away from their chair and to make new contacts and acquaintances at dental gatherings.

Perhaps the biggest challenge in recent years has been the COVID experience and the huge practical difficulties it presented to dentists. We had highly challenging circumstances to deal with in Ireland reflecting the fact that dentistry is very much outside the mainstream healthcare system which very much revolves around acute hospitals. There were of course many differing views on science and best practice in terms of managing safety for patients and dental team members and there were many practical challenges in providing appropriate advice for our members.

At that time a network emerged of the Chief Executives of the dental associations in the main English-speaking countries, including the US, Canada, Britain, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland where we were very quickly able to swap information, share advice and learn from each other as we struggled and ultimately adapted to representing the interests of our members. That forum has continued to meet online in the intervening years and has remained an invaluable resource for our Association. That has become even more evident with the publication of the WHO Global Oral Health Strategy which is essentially a template for worldwide reform in the healthcare system which will see oral health integrated with general health.

It is the theoretical basis also for the Smile agus Sláintecare programme, published here in 2019. In recent times it has risen up the agenda at international dental gatherings and especially at FDI where 184 organisations from 134 countries meet annually to consider the latest in scientific and political matters.

It had become increasingly apparent that the impact of the WHO Global Oral Health Policy is now being seen at national state level and in many cases, countries are only waking up to the real impact of the proposed reform within the policy. We are proud to say that the Irish Dental Association is literally leading the world in leading the response to the publication of the WHO policy. Our policy paper of March this year is being rightly recognised and lauded as a significant and influential response on behalf of practising dentists.

Many international colleagues have expressed gratitude for the work done by the Irish Dental Association in leading the debate and that was very evident in the multiple bi-lateral meetings we had in the FDI Istanbul meeting with American, Australian, Belgian, British, Canadian, Dutch, Estonian, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, New Zealand, Polish and Portuguese Associations.

I was delighted to be joined by our Past President, Dr Kieran O’Connor who was an outstanding ambassador for Irish dentistry and made countless connections with colleagues working at the sharp end and gathering essential information on reforms happening across the world. Through his connections we can see the impact the WHO Global Oral Health Policy is having in many countries but also, we can see the common experience of dentists where we have low prioritisation of oral health, weak co-ordination between government, government agencies and stakeholders, inequality and access to care and low oral health literacy.

As Kieran rightly said, when these factors are combined with financial limitations and human resource shortages in many countries, national oral health plans and other reforms are failing to deliver.

He learnt that in Australia a voucher system for children appeared to deliver much but is failing because of the restrictions on the types of treatment being funded. Similarly in New Zealand, a scheme which combines capitation and fee per item is struggling. Of particular interest we learnt about the rollout of the Dental Care Plan in Canada where a scheme has been launched to provide care for almost one in four of the population. Again, there are many problems with its rollout, including the shortage of dental team members as well as the administrative burden being imposed on dental practices. There is of course a real fear that a new government could change the scheme and effectively starve it.

We learned of many other common issues and challenges facing dentists across the world. These connections will help us to lead the profession in Ireland in managing reform.

The recent launch of the Starting Dentistry in Ireland booklet, for which my considerable thanks go to my colleague Roisin Farrelly, at the event hosted by the Association also showed the importance of making connections. In fact, it was quite notable that some of the speakers admitted that the last time such an event took place in 2019 they were in the audience. They can see a real progression in their careers already and the value of attending dental meetings where they meet colleagues facing common experiences and where ultimately, they make connections which serve to ease their path through dentistry.

Of course, we know that major change is coming and we expect the imminent publication of the 3-year Smile agus Sláintecare Implementation Plan 2024/2027. From our meetings with the Department of Health over the past nine months, we know that there will be significant legislative and policy changes including the Department’s wish to rollout new State Schemes replacing the DTSS, introducing a proposed new Scheme for dental care for children, and many other significant changes. Of course, many of these will be welcome changes but we equally see that these herald a significant challenge for the Association and the profession. In those circumstances, it is ever more important that dentists in Ireland connect, join the Association, make their views known and play an important part in shaping the response of the profession.

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