The number of dental treatments carried out on medical card patients in Clare has risen by 37% since last July.
The latest figures from the HSE shows however that spending in this county under the Dental Treatment Services Scheme was more than €28,000 below the national average last month.
Dentists here received a combined a total of of €98,112 for providing treatment to medical card holders last month.
This marks an increase of over 40% on the €70,685 which was spent in July last year.
Clare’s funding boost appears to have paid its dividends however with an additional 470 treatments carried out here in the same timeframe, bringing the county’s total to 1,731 last month.
This is despite the number of dentists contracted to provide services to medical card holders here under the Dental Treatment Services Scheme halving from sixteen to eight in the same timeframe.
The total expenditure in this county was the fifth lowest recorded of any local health area nationwide, with the national average spend coming in at €126,206 , 28% above the expenditure in Clare last month.
