Claffey slams growing waiting lists for school dentists

CLLR Clare Claffey has sharply criticised waiting lists for school dentist visits which she says are leaving hundreds of children in pain.
In any normal year, a dental nurse will treat children in either 1st or 2nd and 6th classes in primary schools free of charge. However, since the start of the Covid pandemic this has not happened.
New figures released by the HSE show that the list of children waiting to see a dentist is increasing steadily, while many private dental practices are not taking on medical card holders due to an internal dispute over who pays for the cost of PPE equipment. This dispute has been ongoing since the beginning of the pandemic with no resolution in sight.
For families who can’t afford dental visits and are on medical cards, they are increasingly finding it difficult to secure a private dentist for their child and family and if no school visits are currently being carried out this could be problematic for some children.
In Offaly due to lack of HSE resources, children in first class in national school have not been targeted for dentist visits since 2018, apparently because priority is being given to dealing with the waiting list for children in sixth class national school.
According to figures supplied by the HSE to Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore, the number of children waiting to see a dentist in Offaly went from 160 in 2019, to 1,269 in 2020 and 1,312 in 2021.
Birr Social Democrats Councillor Claffey said "it's just completely unacceptable, many of these children are in pain and the longer they wait, the longer they are forced to suffer, with dental issues becoming more serious because they were not dealt with in time."
Cllr Claffey continued "I am calling on the Minister for Health to address this issue. Our children have already suffered so much during the last almost two years, the very least we can do is ensure they are seen by a dentist when they need to be".