Around fifty dentists are gathered this Thursday in front of parliament, under heavy rain, to demand the creation of a special career as a dentist in the National Health Service (SNS) and raise awareness of the precariousness experienced in the sector. The bad weather was not enough to demobilize professionals from the protest, called by the Dentists' Union (SMD), due to "the spiral of devaluation of the class". The protesters hold an umbrella with one hand and with the other a banner that says: "Too many dentists in Portugal. There are dentists going hungry."
The dentists' demands are also exposed on the banners placed over the stalls displayed in front of the steps of the Assembly of the Republic, where one can read: "SNS dentists have no legal framework. Tired of promises, we want careers" or "The dental check does not solve oral health problems. Social benefit at the expense of dentists". Protesters also shouted slogans such as “Health plans are a fraud” and “Oral health for all”. Portugal, they warn, has more than twice the professionals recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and, simultaneously, has "one of the worst oral health rates in the European Union". "The ratio of 800 inhabitants for each dentist will increase, in 2025, to 650 inhabitants for each dentist, which is clearly exaggerated and harmful both for the profession and for the class that is going through the biggest labor crisis since it existed in Portugal" , highlights the union.
Dentists also demand the regulation of health plans, the reformulation of dental vouchers, "the immediate reduction of the numerus clausus" and "prevent the opening of another dental medicine course". The union's president, João Neto, states that the proposals that led to the demonstration aim to "try to somewhat alleviate the precariousness, unemployment and underemployment that exists in the class and that will affect younger people." "Colleagues who have recently graduated will emigrate. There are more than 600 who emigrate every year and there are even more serious situations", said João Neto.
He also argued that it is necessary to "alert students, or anyone who is thinking about taking a dental medicine course, that they will not have the future perspective that they think, because there are too many dentists". It is necessary to "have the courage to reduce the numerus clausus (...) because otherwise there will be chaos", he warned. Having graduated less than a year ago, Mariana Batista, from Lisbon, pointed out the barriers she has encountered due to health plans that, "often, are a fraud", because patients think they are free but "the advertising is misleading".
The young dentist reported that, when patients arrive at the office, they have to be explained "everything about the health plans, that there are no free treatments". "It's not possible to have free treatments, because we have green receipts and if the patient doesn't pay, we won't receive it either," she said. "We have an assistant, we have a doctor, we have electricity to pay and it becomes complicated", lamented the young woman, who participated in the first national demonstration of dentists.
Resistant to rain and wind, the dentists made a point of being present at the protest "for the appreciation of dentists, dentists in the SNS and the oral health of the Portuguese", summarized João Neto. The union president lamented that oral health has been forgotten by successive governments, which is reflected in the State Budget proposal for 2024, in which "there are only two paragraphs about the oral health of the Portuguese".
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