No smiles as dental crisis worsens on Tiree
There is nary a smile on Tiree as the island feels the bite of the national dental crisis.
For the last three years, getting a dental appointment on Tiree has been a pain in the jaw, now Tiree Community Council is hoping to change that.
Tiree has no permanent resident dentist. Instead, dentists travel to the island for single day clinics.
After the Covid-19 pandemic, dental care on the island rapidly deteriorated,visits were cut from five full days every two months, to two five hour visits each fortnight.
Sometimes, these visits even fail to happen, with cancellations to the plane from Oban and the ferry worsening the crisis.
With each missed visit, the appointment backlog continues to pile up.
Many islanders are reporting annual check ups being entirely missed for multiple years. Others have been waiting for a scheduled appointment for similar periods.
The Oban Times heard from Tiree mum Alison Campbell, whose three sons, aged nine, seven and five, have each only received one on island appointment for their entire lives.
Repeatedly their annual check ups are cancelled for a myriad of reasons.
She has also been dealing with a tooth problem herself for two years without being seen.
Alison said: "We did all get a letter for an appointment two years ago and it was cancelled due to the dentist not coming and it was never re- scheduled.
The extent of this toothache shocked the community council, which in response sent a letter to Director and Assistant Director of NHS Highland Dental Services, John Lyon and Gill Rees, requesting a meeting.
In the letter, Dr John Holliday, Secretary of Tiree Community Council said: "I understand that there is a huge backlog for children’s routine check-ups.
NHS Highland is facing a severe shortage of dentists, with services similarly stretched on Skye and other Hebridean isles.
The health board is in the process of planning a new dental school in Inverness to address the shortage, but this is a plan for the future.
A stopgap solution has been identified, as a clinician has been deployed from Glasgow.
A spokesperson for Argyll and Bute HSCP acknowledged the extent of the issue.
They said: "We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to patients.
"A fortnightly day‑trip model has been implemented to support dental service frequency; unfortunately, flights can be unavailable and affected by weather disruption leading to short‑notice cancellations.
"Although we have successfully maintained the schedule for Dental Therapist visits, we are currently unable to sustain the longer visits from Dentists.
"To address this issue, we have deployed a clinician from Glasgow to offer additional visits.
"We are continuing to evaluate the sustainability of this model to improve access to dental care on Tiree and reduce the existing waiting list. In the meantime, we will also continue to prioritise patients with urgent dental care needs."
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