The country's dentists say they can no longer endorse the medical card free dental scheme.

The Irish Dental Union says following recent cutbacks to entitlements under the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS), the dental profession no longer has any confidence in the operation of the scheme.

Over the past two years, treatment entitlements under the DTSS have been cut back, with the result that medical card patients can effectively only receive emergency care under the DTSS.

In a letter to the HSE and the Department of Health, the Union says the scheme no longer provides treatments deemed necessary within patients' treatment plans and dentists are forbidden by the HSE from providing these treatments to patients.

The union says the cuts to the scheme are having an adverse effect on both the oral and general health of the population.

It has called for a new State-funded dental scheme providing timnely and accessible care, with priority given to preventive dental treatment.

Dentists say they are also dissatisfied with the current administration of the scheme by the HSE.

The Dental Uniion's Chief Executive Fintan Hourihan told irishhealth.com that the union could not instruct dentists to quit the scheme en masse.

However, he said dentists were so dissatisfied with the current resourcing of the DTSS that they felt they could no longer endorse it.

The Union recently pointed out that although the HSE allocated €63 million to the medical card dental scheme in 2011, only €51 milliion was actually spent on the scheme.