Dr. Peter Gannon:

That is true. I have been working as a dentist for about 15 years. When I started working there was a big cost difference between dental treatment North and South. That gap is very close now, however, and there is very little difference. In fact, a recent survey I saw in a national newspaper looked at four practices in the North and four in the South to compare prices. The cheapest one was in Dublin.

If one looks at the supports that a general dentist will get in the North in contrast to what I would get here, they do not pay commercial rates and their clinical waste is taken away. There are allowances for maternity leave and education, and there is locum cover if a dentist is not in the practice. Naturally, it will be more expensive for me to provide that care, so what I charge is based on how much it costs me to provide that care.

Looking across Europe and the world generally, there are huge differences in dental treatment costs. I have Irish patients who are now living in Canada or Australia and when they are home on holidays they come to me because I am much cheaper. Two weeks ago, a young man visited my practice from Norway. He reckoned that the price he paid me for a filling was about half what he would pay in Norway, so one will get that range of prices.

Where it is cheaper to provide dental treatment, the costs will be cheaper but the difference between North and South is a good deal less than it used to be. When people take the opportunity to compare different dentists' prices, they will find a lot more value within the Republic of Ireland than they used to in the past.