The Irish Dental Association has claimed the people's dental health has seriously worsened due to cutbacks to the two main dental schemes.

Eighty two percent of dentists have reported an increase of patients presenting in pain while 84% say they have seen an increase in gum disease, according to an IDA-commissioned survey.

In addition, three quarters of respondents to the survey said more patients are presenting with loose teeth while nine out of ten dentists say they are extracting more teeth
 
Details of the survey were released at the IDA's annual conference in Cavan.

IDA Chief Executive Fintan Hourihan said the survey showed that due to a mixture of official neglect and ongoing cutbacks, Irish dental care is in a state of emergency and requires urgent assistance.
 
"Two thirds of dentists say they are now referring more patients to hospitals while 73% are referring more patients to HSE dental clinics. We predicted this would happen when the cutbacks were announced. We now fear that patients are in for a lot more pain and delays because the system is buckling under the pressure," he said.

Early last year, subsidies for dental care under social insurance were slashed, as were entitlements to routine dental care for medical card patients.
 
Eighty-eight per cent of the dentists polled did not believe that the public are aware of their remaining entitlements under the two dental health schemes.

The IDA has announced that to help address this information deficit it is launching a new information campaign.

The poster and web campaign will target the eight out of ten Irish citizens - covered by the PRSI or medical card schemes - who are still entitled to free dental checks, and the entitlement of medical card holders to a number of other free treatments including up to two fillings per annum.

The survey also showed of dentists said they were under financial pressure. Sixty-three per cent of dentists reported there had been redundancies in their practice while 74% report they had introduced reduced working hours.
 
‘"Practically all of last year’s dental graduates emigrated to Britain and Australia and many established dentists are also being forced to emigrate or work part-time in Britain to supplement reduced work in Ireland," Mr Hourihan said.