The Irish Dental Association has said it is looking forward to the new government delivering on the commitments it made on dental health issues during the recent election campaign.

According to the association, both Fine Gael and Labour said they would:
-Reinstate the Medical Card Dental Scheme
-Fill the vacant post of chief dental officer as soon as possible
-Review the PRSI Dental Scheme

The IDA has continually claimed that recent cutbacks in dental services are having a devastating impact on patients and will cost the State more in the long run.

Last year, medical card holders had cover for non-emergency dental care removed. According to the IDA, this means that dentists ‘are left in the invidious situation where they diagnose disease but cannot treat it'.

Meanwhile, the PRSI dental benefit scheme was reduced to only cover the cost of an annual check-up. This means that subsidies for other treatments, such as fillings and extractions, have been removed despite the fact that people who use this scheme are paying increased social insurance charges.

The association welcomed the recent appointments of Dr James Reilly as Minister for Health, Roisin Shortall as Junior Health Minister in charge of primary care and Joan Burton as Minister for Social Protection.

"The IDA wishes all three new ministers well in their portfolios and looks forward to meeting with them at the earliest opportunity to discuss dental health issues. Besides delivering on the above commitments, we are looking forward to engaging with them on the PRSI Dental Scheme, the need to fill critical vacancies in the Public Dental Service and the restoration of a number of services provided by dentists to children and special needs patients," commented IDA chief executive, Fintan Hourihan.

He added that the commitment given by Fine Gael to renegotiate the contract between the IDA and the HSE for services rendered under the Medical Card Scheme was most welcome.

"This is a hugely important topic for patients and dentists given the HSE made a unilateral decision last year to severely restrict the scope of the scheme. Restricting the scheme to emergency care only was shortsighted in the extreme and we hope the new Minister will show the HSE the error of its ways," Mr Hourihan said.