Fintan Houlihan, chief executive of the Irish Dental Association, said he was not surprised.
“Roughly speaking, over the past 10 years, the number of patients served has increased by 25% and the number of dentists has decreased by 25%.
“What that ultimately means is that patients are forced to seek emergency pain relief, complain of pain, and instead of keeping their teeth, face the possibility of losing them.
“And the people who are suffering the most are the ones who need it the most and probably have the most difficulty affording it.”
He said it was estimated that there was a shortage of up to 500 dentists in Ireland.
“We are appalled and shocked to hear of patients whose dental health is so poor that they undergo what is called a ‘full clearance’, which basically involves removing all their teeth. We are looking at applying dentures, which may be applicable to teenagers.”
The study found that the proportion of general dentists in the population ranged from as low as 1 in 712 people in Romania to as high as 1 in 1,770 people in Ireland. This study highlighted the importance of training future dental health professionals.
Ireland and countries such as Germany, Italy, France, Greece, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom regulate the number of annual admissions to dental schools, while Romania, Portugal, and Spain do not have such regulations.
“As a result, Romania, Portugal and Spain have a surplus of dentists,” the study authors said. International Dental Journal.
Mr Houlihan said there were only about 90 dental graduates each year from Ireland’s two dental schools, Trinity College and UCC.
“About 50% of our graduates from both schools come from the Far East, from Canada. The reason why there are so many is because outside the EU they pay more than 50,000 euros a year. They will say they have no choice but to do so because they have not been offered one.”
The HSE’s public dental service currently has a two-year waiting list for treatments requiring general anesthesia, the IDA said.
It is estimated that the HSE needs 76 dentists to return to where it was 10 years ago.
Mr Houlihan welcomed the decision to fund the new school through the College of Surgeons, but said it would take nearly 10 years before the first students graduated.
He also called for immediate changes to work permit rules to allow dentists to enter the country from outside the European Economic Area.
The HSE said in a statement that Health Minister Stephen Donnelly plans to significantly expand university places in health fields, including dentistry. “This means that with investment, he could potentially train an additional 63 dentists each year.”