Dental Services
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-25
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Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

I thank the Senator for articulating a pressing issue. It is a question I have answered many times in the Seanad and the Dáil. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Health.
I am grateful to her for the opportunity to address the issue of access to oral healthcare services for children, including orthodontic treatment.
The HSE oral healthcare service aims to provide an oral examination and necessary treatment for children at ages approximating to second and sixth class and, in some cases, fourth class. Emergency care is provided for children of all ages up to 16 and for those with complex and additional needs. The HSE provides orthodontic treatment to patients with the most severe and complex treatment needs.
The Minister is aware that there are currently backlogs in the HSE’s child oral health examination programme, which has meant that the sixth-class groups are being prioritised. As the Senator said, it used to be second class, fourth class and sixth class I recall all my children getting the fissure seals, which make such a difference when they are heading into their teenage years. The Government is committed to addressing the immediate difficulties patients are experiencing in accessing oral healthcare services. The Senator asked an awful lot of questions at the end and they are the driving questions we have at the moment regarding why some dentists do not take public patients. We are losing people when they are trained. They decide to work abroad. People who come here for excellent training go back to their home countries. It was interesting when I met the Belgian minister for health in Brussels, I think it was in 2023. It was during a St. Patrick's day visit. At that time we were just coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. I recall asking the Minister what his most pressing concern was at the time and he said it was the lack of dentists in Belgium. We have population growth here. In 2015, we had 900,000 children in the country; now we have 1.2 million. It is so important. Everyone knows that there is nothing worse than a toothache. This situation is challenging.
Last year, over 146,000 new patients were assessed in the public dental service, including approximately 100,000 under targeted programmes in schools and special care programmes with over 46,000 others attending for emergencies.
The Minister acknowledges that the current system, which was developed in the 1990s in response to the identified oral healthcare needs at that time, must be modernised and aligned with current needs. The national oral health policy sets out the vision for oral healthcare services in Ireland and has two key goals: first, to provide the supports to enable every individual to achieve their personal best oral health; and, second, to reduce oral health inequalities across the population.
The Senator raised MIH, which she has lived experience of and knows a lot more about than I do. It is a specific pattern of enamel defects in adult teeth. While there is no definitive cause, it is thought that the defects are due to issues arising at the time of development of these specific teeth. The impact for the patient can be wide-ranging, with some experiencing very little impact on the incisors, but a common presentation is sensitivity in the molars.
Depending on the enamel area impacted, management of these teeth can be challenging. Enamel is designed to protect the inner layers of the tooth including the nerve tissue, with MIH patients often experiencing sensitivity to hot and cold due to these enamel defects. The treatment ranges from preventive management through fluoride applications right through to managed extractions at an appropriate age range. These children may present as emergencies from associated sensitivity.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-25