DENTAL CRISIS: 80% of children in Laois Offaly denied school screening appointments

The fact that almost 80% of children in the Laois Offaly area were denied access to school screening dental appointments last year should be "an embarrassment" for the government. 

That's according to Dr. Will Rymer,  President-Elect of the Irish Dental Association, who said Laois is "as bad as it gets" when it comes to children not being able to access dental care under the HSE scheme due to a lack of resources. 

Speaking to Leinster Express/ Laois Live Dr Rymer said: "Laois Offaly is as bad as it gets. 21% of children screened last year should be a real embarrassment. You have government TDs in Laois Offaly and I don't see any evidence  that there has been any particular questions asked in the Dáil by them on the dental crisis. Laois Offaly is like an eircode lottery. If you lived a couple of miles up the road and you lived in Tipperary you have a very good chance your children will be seen. If you are living in the capital they get well looked after but Laois Offaly is as bad as it gets and they are being hard done by."

In 2023 there were a total of  7,781 children in Laois Offaly eligible for a school screening appointment and they should be seen in second, fourth and fifth class. However, just 1,607 of these children were actually seen last year. That represents 21% which compares to 67 per cent of school children seen in Dublin.

"We are only seeing a tiny number of children. It's about catching them at the right ages. We target those appointments for specific reasons, they are key developmental stages," said Dr Rymer who has a dental practice in Roscrea, County Tipperary. 

"Because of staff resourcing issues they are concentrating on one particular age group, so fourth class screenings but they are so far behind some children are not being seen until transition year in secondary, it's atrocious."

Dr Rymer said when children are presenting in their teens having missed these opportunities for simple checkups when they are younger they are now presenting with cavities and dentists are having to do fillings, root canal treatments and extractions.

"The fact that we are letting down the children and we are condemning them to a lifetime of expensive dental treatment because of something so simple as preventative screening is really a terrible blight on the government, " he said. 

Dr Rymer said while staff are doing their best, posts within the HSE have remained vacant for years. He said it is not a service that is particularly attractive to young dentists because of the morale among staff. 

Sinn Féin TD for Laois/Offaly Brian Stanley strongly criticized the "chronic waiting times" for the school dental screening scheme in Laois and Offaly which he described as being "at crisis point."

A recent reply to a Parliamentary Question from the deputy revealed that 7,057 Laois children are waiting for basic dental screening under the school dental programme.

“In the case of Laois, there are 893 children in fourth year of secondary school, who have never been seen under the school dental scheme. Shockingly, there are 2610 children that are in third year or above in secondary school in Laois that have never been screened under the school dental scheme," said Deputy Stanley.