The Irish Dental Association (IDA) has expressed concern about what it said are Government plans to outsource public child and special needs dental care to an understaffed and overstretched private dental system.
It said that a lack of a proper public dental service model could lead to the most vulnerable children in the country missing out on early dental intervention.
It said HSE figures show that the number of public-only dentists has dropped by almost one quarter in the past 15 years from 330 to 254 last year.
At a minimum, the IDA said that the HSE would need to hire 76 dentists now, to bring the service back to what it was 15 years ago.
IDA President Dr Caroline Robins said it is vital that dental practices have sufficient staff to look after patients in a timely and safe manner.
She said HSE figures show that half of the children who were to be seen by a dentist under the school screening programme last year never received any form a dental check-up.
She said this was down to a lack of staff in the public dental service.
Ms Robins said that outsourcing children's oral healthcare to an already understaffed and overstretched private sector was not the answer.
The IDA has launched a strategic workforce plan making recommendations on how to improve the staffing problems in both the public and private service.
The proposals include a recommendation for significant investment and expansion of the two dental schools in University College Cork and Trinity College Dublin.
The HSE has said it acknowledges the challenges associated with the Dental Treatment Service Scheme currently and the reduced number of dentists participating.
It said it also acknowledges that, coming out of the pandemic, there are currently backlogs within the targeted primary school class programme for children.
To help address the current access issues, an unprecedented additional allocation of €15m was made in Budget 2023, it added.
The HSE said that €5m of this allocation is being invested on a one-off basis this year to support the HSE to provide care to its eligible child and adult populations, including addressing backlogs in the targeted primary school class programme.
The executive said that its 2023 National Service Plan aims to continue to develop services and implement waiting list initiatives across a range of dental and orthodontic services and maximise activity across these services to manage waiting lists and waiting times.
The service plan will support the implementation of the Government's National Oral Health Policy, Smile Agus Sláinte, including the development of comprehensive oral healthcare packages for roll-out to children aged from birth to seven years of age.
