Remarks by President McAleese at the Irish Dental Association Annual Conference Dinner
Remarks by President McAleese at the Irish Dental Association Annual Conference Dinner, Hotel Kilkenny Friday, 24 April 2009
Dia dhaoibh, a cháirde go léir. Tá mé iontach sásta bheith anseo libh tráthnóna.
Thank you for that warm welcome and for the invitation to the Irish Dental Association’s Annual Conference Dinner. It’s nothing new for me to have dinner with dentists, in fact it is a daily occurrence, but since my daughter joined the ranks of dental students I don’t get much of a word in around the dinner table for all the cross-talk about teeth, so the chance to speak at this dinner to a bunch of silent dentists is particularly welcome.
On the other hand what can a lawyer say to a roomful of dentists? Charles Dickens said that “If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers”, one might be tempted to say the same about bad teeth! Miguel Cervantes writing in 1605 said that “Every tooth in a man's head is more valuable than a diamond” and we can take it he was not referring to titanium implants. He was referring to something that we don’t talk about enough or acknowledge enough and that is the huge difference between a life lived with good oral health and a life lived without it. Our oral health impacts on our diet, on our ability to communicate properly, how pain free and infection free our lives are; it impacts on how we look, how we feel about ourselves, how comfortable we are in the simple pleasures of life like eating or socialising.
We are fortunate in Ireland that we have the knowledge that can help us take responsibility for our own oral hygiene and health and we have access to the good dental treatment and advice which we need to help and guide us to a life-time of good oral health. Each day you deal with the people who take very seriously their own personal responsibility for their own oral health, who present regularly for check-ups, who brush and floss and stay away from damaging foods and drinks. Side by side with them in the waiting room however are the others, who appear only in an emergency, who neglect this precious part of our human anatomy and whose neglect accumulates over a lifetime creating more and more avoidable problems, more and more unnecessary misery. It is not all about fear of the dentist’s drill. Time has moved rapidly on from the days when C.S. Lewis asked “What do people mean when they say, I am not afraid of God because I know He is good? Have they never been to a dentist?”
Nowadays going to the dentist is a fairly benign experience and an important investment in ourselves and our own well-being. Many of you, I know, work as volunteers in countries where the very concept of a dental health system or indeed any health system at all is generations away. You can tell stories of remote villages in Kenya, or Honduras, or places like Calcutta or Belarus where your generosity alone has been the sole source of dental treatment or education about oral care in literally centuries. You can tell of the sheer joy and relief that work has brought to so many people, how they may have walked for hours barefoot to access the most basic of treatment and how profoundly grateful they are for it. That work is done under the radar, without seeking recognition or recompense but it builds on an age-old Irish spirit of sharing and of caring for the overlooked and the forgotten. By comparison though, poor personal oral care or protection in an Ireland where people have real opportunities for good care, is an unnecessary and avoidable affront.
Closer to home you are right at the forefront of debates within the profession and with the statutory bodies and government about the development of dental healthcare practice and policy in Ireland. In and through that work you are not simply advancing the interests of dentists but of the public which your members serve. You have helped us to become much more sophisticated and sensible around oral health issues, from gum shields for sportsmen and women to opening our minds to the connections between what we eat and drink and our overall oral health. We owe you a huge debt of gratitude for that journey of growth and education.
Like virtually all professions and all sectors of our society you too are having to adapt to the new realpolitik generated by both the global financial crisis and our own local economic problems. The patients whom you treat have less money in their pockets than they had a short time ago, they have to juggle financial priorities in their lives, they shop for treatment options around the EU, they make choices about emergency and elective or cosmetic procedures which impact on their oral health and on your day to day practices.
Your working context is changing and you do not have the option of doing nothing and hoping it will all come right or postponing the pursuit of better and higher standards until times are better. Your Association has to be the voice demanding the best and giving the best even in the worst of times.
For the fine work you do and not least for providing employment and dinner conversation for my various family members I have reason to thank the profession of dentistry, I wish you all an enjoyable night and a better year ahead than we have been led to expect.
Go raith míle maith agaibh go léir. Thank you.