Dentists warn future of service at risk amidst cuts
The British Dental Association has warned officials that planned cuts will devastate a service already on the brink.
Representatives of every field of practice in Northern Ireland have an open letter to Peter May, the Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health.
In it they say: "If the axe falls on dentistry - indeed if there is a failure to provide needed investment - this service faces collapse. The price will be paid by patients across Northern Ireland."
It also points out some worrying trends, including:
*Red flag referrals for suspected oral cancers from high street dentists to secondary care set at 2 weeks are currently running at 8.5 weeks in some areas.
*An access crisis in primary care - Last year it was found 90% of practices were not accepting new adult patients and 88% were not accepting child patients.
*Multi-year waiting times: There are 5-6 year waiting times for routine assessment for Oral & Maxillo-facial services; 219-312 weeks Hospital Orthodontic waiting times for patients with facial deformities.
*Widening Health inequalities: NI residents are twice as likely to have filled teeth as their counterparts in England, and children are three times as likely to have multiple teeth extracted under General Anaesthetic.
*Plummeting Morale: COVID has had an enormous impact on the dental profession. 63.6% of community dentists – treating the most vulnerable in society - say their morale is 'low/very low', with a key factor being the ongoing patient backlog.