Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 January 2016
251. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Health the number of persons waiting for orthodontic treatment at the end of September 2015, by local health office area, by those under 16 years of age, by those 16 years of age and older, in tabular form. [3589/16]
View answerThe HSE provides orthodontic treatment to those who have been assessed and referred for treatment before their 16th birthday. It should be noted that the nature of orthodontic care means that immediate treatment is not always desirable. It is estimated that in up to 5% of cases it is necessary to wait for further growth to take place, until after 16-18 years of age, before treatment commences. Patients are assessed by the HSE Orthodontic Service under the modified Index of Treatment Need. Patients with the greatest level of need i.e. Grade 5 or Grade 4 are provided with treatment by the HSE.
Information on waiting times is collated by the HSE by region and for the intervals as shown in the following table. The information is not collated by age. In general, those waiting over 4 years would be expected to be 16 years or over since they are usually referred at 12-13 years of age approximately. The information on waiting times for treatment for Quarter 3 of 2015 is as follows:
|
Waiting time from assessment to commencement of treatment |
1 - 6 months |
7 - 12 months |
13 - 24 months |
25-48 months |
Over 48 months |
TOTAL |
|
HSE Dublin Mid-Leinster |
729 |
974 |
1,513 |
1,585 |
334 |
5,135 |
|
HSE Dublin North East |
309 |
577 |
1,035 |
1,515 |
726 |
4,162 |
|
HSE South |
662 |
802 |
994 |
1,449 |
306 |
4,213 |
|
HSE West |
450 |
793 |
2,021 |
1,304 |
28 |
4,596 |
|
Total |
2,150 |
3,146 |
5,563 |
5,853 |
1,394 |
18,106 |
