Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for appearing before the committee. Back in my days spent working in Dublin City Council, I worked with a few of them in the context of fluoride being in the water supply. For the benefit of the public and the committee, will they speak briefly on the role of fluoride in the water supply and the risk that removing it would pose, with specific reference to oral health inequality and the difference in dental and oral health among socio-economic groups?

As a pharmacist, I have long been concerned with prophylactic antibiotic use in young children awaiting dental care, such as children with enamel hypoplasia and other conditions. The waiting list for the required treatment can be so long that, as our guests will be aware but I am trying to explain it for the public, children are often prescribed a continuing dose of antibiotics. I have seen cases of courses lasting more than a year, although perhaps our guests have seen worse cases than that. I raise the matter in order that we will know what we are dealing with, and have dealt with for years, in the case of children. This is how it has been managed. It is not the same as when one is waiting for a hip operation, takes a few painkillers and suffers for a few months. In the case of children, a significant portion of their young life can be spent on oral antibiotics which, if they had been treated earlier, they would not need. As professionals, our guests might explain the impact of such prescriptions on children and their long-term health, as well as the negative effects of long-term antibiotic use. If we had enough capacity, that type of treatment would not be used.

Thankfully, there has been much conversation in recent years about HPV vaccination. Whichever of our guests is an expert on it might speak briefly on the rise of head and neck cancers, especially among young men, and how it affects the role of dentists, as people who look into mouths, and the strain it has on their service, if it does. What is our guests' position on the roll-out of the HPV vaccine to young boys?

I return to the issue of fluoride and socio-economic groups, as well as the effect of junk food in children's diets, especially those which include dried fruit and similar foods which are bad for teeth. Have we done enough to educate young parents? I know that juice is the devil in the world of dentists, as are dried raisins. I myself have young children. There is a lack of information available for parents, young or old, given that one might expect giving freshly squeezed juice or dried fruit to one's children to be good. Is there work to be done with the public, perhaps at the point of delivery of a baby, to educate people about how to prevent children's dental decay and extraction?

Mr. Hourihan referred to the role of dental technicians and providing direct access to the public. Will he elaborate on that? I might ask some more questions. I know what a dental technician is but I am concerned about the clinical interface. Dentists are clinical specialists, regarded as doctors and permitted to use the title as such. Will Mr. Hourihan comment further on the move he mentioned? I did not understand what he meant. Did he mean that somebody can substitute for a dentist? Somebody might inform me better in that regard and I might ask more questions.