Thousands of children are having to wait for seven or eight years for their first public dental examination, while some are left waiting for 12 years, dentists have said.

According to the Irish Dental Association (IDA), the public dental service is failing children due to ‘totally inadequate staffing levels', and at least 150 extra dentists are required to ensure an adequate service.

Some 300 dentists are currently employed in the public service, however the IDA insisted that this figure needs to increase by 50% - 150 dentists - if the service is to be able to operate properly.

International guidelines recommend that children should have their first dental examination by the age of 12 months. However most children in Ireland only have their first scheduled appointment with the public dental service at the age of seven or eight as part of the school screening programme.

Thousands more are only seen for the first time in sixth class, when they are already 12 years of age.

"Staff shortages, clinic closures and a lack of policy and direction by the HSE are putting an intolerable burden on staff in the public service and undermining their ability to provide an effective service.

"While the under-16 population has increased by 20% over the past decade to 1.1 million, the number of dentists in the public service charged with looking after their oral health has dropped by 20% due to recruitment restrictions," explained IDA chief executive, Fintan Hourihan.

He said that when it comes to children, dental exams are ‘akin to a lottery'. He called on the Minister for Health to direct the HSE to commence a recruitment campaign for dentists urgently.

As part of its pre-Budget submission, the IDA is also calling for the restoration and expansion of tax relief on certain prescribed dental treatments.

In recent years, a number of dental cutbacks have been introduced by the Government. For example, the PRSI dental benefit scheme was reduced to only cover the cost of an annual check-up. This led to the removal of subsidies for other treatments, such as fillings and extractions, which people could avail of in the past.

Relief which could be claimed against the cost of dental treatment to the standard tax rate was also restricted. This meant the withdrawal of €30 million per annum of reliefs for the cost of dental treatment, which has impacted on patients' willingness to look after their dental health, the IDA claims.

"We estimate that half a billion euro worth of supports to patients and their families covered by the medical card and PRSI dental schemes have been lost by Government cuts since 2010. We now need to start reversing the damage done by these cuts in State supports towards accessing dental care," Mr Hourihan said.

He added that oral health is essential to maintaining good overall health, ‘a fact that is continuously overlooked by Government when it comes to investing in our dental services'.

Budget 2018 will be announced on October 10.