Northern Ireland Must Seize 'unique Opportunity' For Dental Health, British Dental Association

Main Category: Dentistry
Article Date: 26 Feb 2007 - 14:00 PDT

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The BDA is calling on those elected to the new Northern Ireland Assembly on 7 March to seize the unique opportunity they have to address the poor state of the nation's teeth and mouths. Northern Ireland currently suffers worse oral health than the Republic of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.

The BDA Northern Ireland 2007 manifesto for dentistry, launched today, stresses the possibility for fundamental change presented by the 2006 Primary Care Dental Care Strategy and calls upon the new Northern Ireland Assembly to ensure that any new arrangements improve access for patients, allow high street dentists more time to focus on preventative care and provide additional funding for dentistry.

Launching the manifesto, BDA Director for Northern Ireland Claudette Christie said:

"The new Assembly will have a unique opportunity to tackle Northern Ireland's woeful dental health. They must work with dentists to provide more time for practitioners to concentrate on preventative care, address the historic underfunding for high street dentistry and ensure that all patients have access to an NHS dentist."

The manifesto also calls upon the Northern Ireland Assembly to safeguard and develop the community dental service's role in providing care to society's most vulnerable patients and increase funding to eliminate long waits for specialist hospital-based care.

http://www.bda.org

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