asked the Minister for Health if, having regard to the very poor response to the recent Local Appointments Commission competition for posts as public dental officers, he will say what steps he intends to take now to ensure that the public dental services are in a position to treat the 500,000 pupils in national schools, bearing in mind both the undesirability of a patient-dentist ratio in excess of 1,000/1 to 1,500/1, and the 95 per cent incidence of dental caries.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dental Services.
53.
I hope to be in a position very shortly to announce certain changes in relation to posts as public dental officers which would make such posts more attractive.
Recruiting more dentists will not, of itself, solve our problems. In Scandinavia there is an exceptional dentist-to-population ratio and yet the dental caries position is getting worse. Our major hope of improvement must lie in prevention, and fluoridation of water supplies which now covers about 1,002,000 of our population, is the biggest single factor in prevention. I am also examining the possibility of extending the use of fluorides by setting up mouth-rinsing schemes in those areas in which fluoridated piped water is not available and this procedure could be an extremely useful supplement to our existing fluoridation programme.
Am I to take it that the Minister means by the first part of his reply that the salary scale of public dental officers will be improved?
That is only part of the answer. This is being done in various ways, and it will be announced very shortly, but it is only part of the answer.