Finding yourself faced with a dental emergency and being offered an appointment with your practitioner two months later. This is the misadventure experienced by David, a resident of Saint-Ghislain. A shortage of dentists in certain regions explains these significant delays. How to explain it? And how to deal with it?
David lives in Saint-Ghislain (in the province of Hainaut). A few weeks ago, he had the painful experience of an abscess under a tooth. He therefore decides to contact his dentist in order to be taken care of as soon as possible. “I wanted to go see my regular dentist so that he might do an operation or at least tell me what I had to do”, he says.
But he did not expect such a delay in taking charge. He is offered a deadline of almost 8 weeks, he assures. “I was told ‘I can’t offer you anything else. I was taken aback, I hung up. Then I emailed them asking them to call me back, because it was an emergency”, remembers this computer engineer. The next day, he called his dentist’s secretary with the firm intention of obtaining an emergency appointment. “I call back, I introduce myself. And I have exactly the same answer. I asked to speak to my dentist and they replied that there was no way”, says David.
David regrets the lack of solutions
When offered to be on the waiting list, David declines, insisting it is an emergency. “I was told ‘We don’t work in a hurry'”, assures the resident of Saint-Ghislain. Today, he regrets the lack of proposed solutions.
We must organize ourselves to meet a real need.
“Granted, I wasn’t going to die of it. But it’s worrying that the people who are responsible for your health aren’t able to respond when you need them,” says David. Before adding“I’m not accustomed to emergencies but it can happen. It’s not something exceptional so if we’re in this business, we have to organize ourselves to meet a real need”.
In Mons, Céline’s agenda is complete
If David was finally able to find another dentist, he was the victim of a shortage that affects part of Wallonia. Céline Pham, dentist in Nimy (Mons) for 17 years, confirms this. Its practice is made up of regarding twenty dentists and is equipped with 8 treatment rooms. But despite everything, no appointment is available for several weeks. The agenda is complete.
The lack of dentists explains this overload. “I have a lot of trouble finding collaborators”, deplores Celine Pham. Before adding: “We don’t have enough practitioners who come to settle in the region. We should perhaps grant bonuses so that they can come to rural areas, or provide information to young people”.
The data shows that the number of dentists is sufficient in Belgium. But the practitioners are poorly distributed over the territory. Thus, we see that the provinces of Hainaut, Luxembourg and Namur lack active dentists. According to the latest available figures (established in 2016), there is one dentist for 1,100 inhabitants in Brussels compared to 1 for 2,500 in Mouscron and 1,200 in Mons. In Arlon, it’s 1 for 2,153 and 1 for 2,046 in Dinant.
More dentists in major cities
“It’s a difficult problem to solve. There is a concentration of dentists in the big cities”, enlighten us Michel Devriese, president of the Society of Dentistry. Indeed, thehe training of French-speaking dentists takes place in Brussels and Liège. At the end of the course, an internship is to be carried out alongside a practitioner. In the regions, for practitioners (being already overloaded due to their low presence), hosting an intern can be complicated. Result: the young people make their weapons in the largest cities and then settle there.
All young dentists no longer want to borrow and create the obligations of a practice.
Another factor that explains the concentration in the big cities: dentists do not always want to set up their own practice. “Formerly, the qualified dentist created his own dental practice. We are no longer in this pattern. We are now in the notions of a group practice, a group of dentists. And all young dentists no longer want to borrow and create the obligations of a firm that they will have to manage from A to Z”, noted Michel Freeze.
To overcome this shortage, the recruitment of young people seems to be the main challenge. The president explains to us that a reflection is being made with the Walloon Region. In this way, impetus policies are implemented. “Some municipalities have taken initiatives by offering, for example, a room available to dentists. But this is a solution that does not meet the current criteria of a dental office. It is not just the room, there is all the investment with the creation of teams”, assures Michel Devriese.
Bonuses to attract young people
For the time being, no concrete solution has been found to attract more young people and thus participate in a better distribution of practitioners on Belgian territory. For the dental medicine company, this should go through a financial incentive. “This is perhaps the factor that can trigger clicks in young people”, valued Michel Devriese. This might, for example, involve bonuses for internship supervisors in regions with a shortage”to allow them to expand their premises in order to attract a young dentist”. For young graduates, we might also think of granting them a bonus in the event of settling in regions with a shortage.
Focus on prevention to avoid emergencies
Dentists insist. An annual check-up appointment is essential. It allows you to work upstream to avoid emergencies. “The dream is that every Belgian goes to the dentist regularly every year. The annual visit helps to avoid problems”, concludes the president of the company of dental medicine who estimates that today, there are no more reasons to avoid control visits.
