Professor Leo Stassen:

It is also important to note that when a public dental service dentist is providing treatment, it takes an inordinate time. I do not believe the national oral health strategy has looked at this. To provide treatment to a special needs patient, one could be talking about two or three sessions before they will even sit in a dental chair, and there is then the treatment. It can take an inordinate time. When one looks at the costing and the important resources that need to be put into this, it is not only people but it takes significant time, effort and cost to, quite correctly, provide treatment for special needs patients. That has not been accounted for. Everybody thinks that every dentist can provide this treatment. Although I am not a general dentist, if a person came to my practice and I had to see them four times, I have to consider I am paying for my premises and nurses, and I have no input from anybody else. That is a huge cost and it has not been addressed.