Canada’s dental care plan: Experts urge feds to provide timeline, more details

Despite the over $5 billion set aside by the government, a parliamentary budget officer has estimated the plan to cost nearly double that at $9 billion.

Earlier this year when the federal government announced plans to create a national dental care program, Dr. Lisa Bentley, dentist of over three decades and president of the Ontario Dental Association (ODA), was excited for the gap in access to care to be filled.

But now, even after meeting with Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, the ODA is still unsure when the coverage will start or what care will be included, according to a release published Thursday by the association.

“That’s quite alarming,” Dr. Bentley told Global News. “We don’t know what the schedule is going to be like so we don’t know what procedures are going to even be covered.”

In Canada, although 70 per cent of patients have access to dental care, 30 per cent are left without it, according to Dr. Bentley.

Aside from surgical-dental services, dental care isn’t covered under the Canada Health Act, according to a report from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

This means a large majority of services are funded by the private sector — including private insurers and Canadian households.

In late July, in order to explore what role private companies could play in administering the program, the Liberals put out a formal request for information (RFI) to members of the insurance industry.

With a “gap” in access, “patients end up in hospital emergency rooms with dental pain and infections and that’s unacceptable in this country,” Dr. Bentley said.