Dr. Anne O'Neill:

I thank members for the interest they have shown this afternoon. It is reassuring that all members who have attended the meeting understand the connections between health and dental health. While many in the system understand and agree on the difficult areas within it, what is actually needed is activity and engagement. The difficulty dentistry often has is that it must beat everybody else to the post to gain the high level of priority needed for the available funding. That will be enabled, to some extent, if there are people who champion the issue of oral health for children and vulnerable adults. We need activity on the implementation of the oral health policy to get that engagement because we are quite aware that is the tool that will be used. We cannot wait for the pandemic to end, however. We need activity now. The problems have been building for so long, I am seriously concerned that by the time the pandemic ends, we will not actually have a dental health system to save. That would be very regrettable because while the DTSS was innovative for its time, it needs a successor.