Early childhood dental examinations are important because they identify problems before they become serious. Early assessments of a child's teeth, jaws and bite can detect developmental issues that can reduce the need for more extensive treatment at a later age. Early check-ups can detect other health concerns and dentists may note the signs of conditions that can affect the child's overall health, such as nutritional deficiencies, oral infections and so on. Preventative dental care and early treatment is more cost-effective and less invasive than treating advanced dental disease. Early dental examinations ensure healthy oral development and establish good dental habits into adulthood. However, children can often face years before orthodontic treatment begins. This can be a result of staff shortages as the HSE has recruitment and staff retention problems. This has impacted school dental screening programmes and caused significant delays in routine dental assessments for children. The long waits for specialist orthodontic treatment and the fact that orthodontic treatment is not covered by a medical card have meant that parents and adults have turned to private care. The cost of private orthodontic treatment can be prohibitive and treatments can cost several thousand euro. Children requiring moderate orthodontic treatment will not qualify for free care as the HSE will only fund treatments for children with severe orthodontic problems based on strict clinical criteria. There are significant backlogs in targeted check-ups in the school dental screening service. This is a result of the many children reaching secondary school before receiving dental assessments. There are also fewer dentists participating in State-funded schemes. Among the measures the Government plans could implement is to put in place a plan to reduce waiting times for dental care and to increase resources for the school screening programme. Our dental healthcare is a system beset by workforce shortages, underfunded State schemes and outdated legislation.

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