Laois boy with special needs forced to wait 6 years for dental treatment
A young boy with special needs has waited 6 years for crucial dental treatment in Laois , a local TD has told the Dáil.
Laois TD Brian Stanley once again raised the issue of long-waiting lists for children to receive dental treatment during a debate in the Dáil on improving dental services.
The TD only recently spoke in the Dáil regarding the 6,000 children waiting on their first dental examination.
Speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday, June 23, Deputy Stanley noted that he has continuously raised this issue over the past number of years and yet “we have actually gone backwards.”
The Independent TD particularly emphasised the impact these waiting lists are having on those with special needs.
“I will raise the position of children and adults with special needs. This is a really serious issue. Those who can only have dental treatment under general anaesthetic are really being neglected,” Deputy Stanley said.
“I have dealt with a number of cases where people have waited years for hospital access. In one case, not 100 miles from the Minister of State's own house in Laois, a boy has been waiting six years for treatment under general anaesthetic. This child is non-verbal and has a serious inflammatory disease. He is in constant pain.
“This is medical neglect and it is not good enough. After repeated representations, he finally received dental treatment in a hospital recently. He had extractions but the teeth that remain are in very poor condition. The family tells me there is advanced decay and infection. I am informed that he will lose those teeth, but the child cannot have dentures. This is very regrettable.”
He said that the school dental scheme has “clearly failed in Laois.”
Deputy Stanley added that just one dentist in Killeshin provides the dental treatment services scheme.
“It is impossible for 95% of medical card patients to get treatment under the DTSS, the scheme that is supposed to cater for them. No other dentist will take on new patients.
The PRSI-based scheme, the dental treatment benefit scheme, only provides workers and their families with a cleaning and an examination. It does not cover treatment,” he said.
“Those with special needs have been failed, as have those with medical cards. Workers and families making use of the dental treatment benefit scheme have been failed. Crucially, there has been a failure to provide a proper school dental scheme. All of this shows that we are way behind and have a great deal of work to do.
“We are supposed to arrive at the full implementation of Sláintecare and a public health system within 18 months but, of course, we are nowhere near that.”
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme