397. Half of the Portuguese can not afford dentist

About half of its population is unable to pay a visit to the dentist, which is detrimental to oral health and is leading dentists to seek other countries to practice. We estimate that about 50 percent of its population is unable to pay even a dental consultation in private. While there are no dentists in health centers or systems of licensing, people will be excluded from oral health, he told a news agency Lusa the president of the College of Dentists, Orlando Monteiro da Silva. The Order has fought so that there are dentists in health centers and hospitals or Portuguese in order to create systems with the private agreement.

Orlando Monteiro da Silva cited a study by University of Liverpool, where Portugal is the darkest scene in Europe in the oral health care. And it is largely the absence of tender by the National Health Service (SNS) at the level of dentistry is also creating a surplus of these professionals in the country and the Order regrets the lack of manpower planning.

If the Portuguese population to have passed all access to oral health care, the dentists likely did not arrive, estimated Orlando Monteiro da Silva. But as this is not true, the Portuguese dentists are seeking other countries: We are exporting human resources for deficit countries such as England and the Netherlands, the Nordic countries because the profession is no longer attractive. Portugal and Poland are the countries that most contribute to oral health services NHS English, for example.

Estimates of the Order indicate that within three years, in 2010, a dentist for every 1,180 residents in Portugal. By comparison, Spain has a professional for every 2,667 residents, the Netherlands will have a professional per 2,118 residents and the United Kingdom have a professional per 2,105 residents.

Projections of the number of dentists for the next years show a lack of control over-training of graduates. The result will inevitably increase unemployment and underemployment in the class, refer to the Order.

In Portugal, only the autonomous regions have oral health systems to serve users of the SNS. In the Azores there are 19 dentists in the public health regional and Order provides that, in some years, the Azores are the best indicators of oral health. In the autonomous region of Madeira is an agreement between the regional health service and private, in the public system to partially reimburse the cost of users who use private dentists.

Destak

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It is good that the future Minister of Health start by cleaning the house. Over the past four years have witnessed the birth and death of oral health programs, continuing always the same problem: all pay taxes to train dentists who are not placed after the service of those in need.

This aberrant situation can not continue to persist in a civilized country and must be condemned at all levels; oral health can no longer be treated by governments and industry organizations as a business.