Fewer than 620 Dentists are now actively participating in the medical card scheme nationally. Shortcomings in publicly funded dental services affect our most vulnerable in society including children waiting on the school screening service. Minister for Health is now asking dentists to sign up to a scheme on the “understanding” that reform is coming. • Irish Dental Association says: “We say to the Minister that hope is not a strategy, not least given how often all promises about the commencement of talks on a new scheme have been broken and no discussions have taken place in sixteen years.

Independent consultancy firm Crowe has found that dentists in private practice who are IDA members save between €955 and €2,136 per year, due to exclusive financial benefits, compared to non-members. Following an extensive review of IDA membership benefits, Crowe confirmed that “most dentists can expect to at a minimum save the cost of their membership fee and typically considerably more.”

Chair of the Irish Dental Association GP Committee, Dr Will Rymer; “Visiting your dentist at least once a year is important to ensure any dental issues are detected early. If left untreated, they could become bigger and more expensive problems later.”