Sustainable Oral Health?

We are pleased to launch a major new position paper from the Association entitled “Towards a Sustainable Oral Healthcare Service” on World Oral Health Day, 2024.

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We have developed the paper as we approach the fifth anniversary of the launch of the Department of Health’s oral healthcare policy, “Smile agus Sláinte”. We have circulated copies to all TDs and Senators and plan to share also with the Department of Health, HSE, Dental Council and the dental schools.

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“Smile agus Sláinte” was launched behind a veil of secrecy in April 2019 with no meaningful consultation with the Association or any other key stakeholders within dentistry.

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Despite its’ launch five years ago, barely any of the 41 Actions have been begun, even fewer completed.

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Since 2014 the Irish Dental Association has sought to meet with the Department fifteen times to discuss dental legislation, policy, contracts, and dental schemes, and yet the Department has met the Association on only five of those fifteen occasions. This includes discussions on the Oral Health Review in 2019 which was signed off without proper consultation, the launch of the 2019 ‘Smile agus Sláinte’ on the eve of our Annual Conference – again without consultation – and promised talks in 2022 of a ‘root and branch review’ of oral health services which never took place.

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We have launched “Toward a Sustainable Oral Healthcare Service”, to build an oral healthcare service which is embedded in the 21st century, an oral healthcare service that works for dentists and all your patients. Our paper follows the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Global Strategy on Oral Health which aims to allow access for all patients to universal healthcare, of which oral healthcare is a fundamental component.

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We identify weakness in the current systems and essential building blocks which need to be put in place to enable successful oral health reforms.

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Through our proposed strategy we aim to reform the collapsing dental services across our country and ensure we can sustain our oral healthcare sector long into the future through appropriate planning and resourcing.

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The Irish Dental Association stands ready to meet and discuss this paper, among the many others [Providing Dental Care in Ireland: A Workforce Crisis (2023), Improving Access to Dental Care for Medical Card Patients (2022)] we have published in an effort to demonstrate our willingness to collaborate with the Department and HSE to reform our services.