Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 8 April 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Review of the Operation of the Medical Card Scheme: Irish Dental Association

Dr. Caroline Robins:

One could argue that any tooth, if it is salvageable, is in need of root canal work. Root canal work is expensive, more time-consuming and complex because there is so much more material used. If the Deputy saw my surgery after a root treatment, he would say that I had thrown everything bar the kitchen sink at it. The work takes time and it needs to take time because one must clinically clean the tooth to a satisfactory point whereby one has effectively sterilised it. This is not something one can do quickly. If one does it quickly, then one has not done it properly. I would say it is a budgetary decision because it is a more expensive treatment. The HSE or the Department of Health would have to pay us a higher fee to do that and I imagine that is possibly something that is not what they want to do.

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