No details yet on federal dental program, which is due to expand soon

As time runs out on a federal promise to expand the Canada Dental Benefit, the Dental Association of P.E.I. is anxious to hear the details of how it will work.

The benefit was scheduled to expand at the end of this year, and the P.E.I. association is still waiting for details. Those details are now not expected until January.

"We actually haven't had any details as of yet," said executive director Dr. Brian Barrett 

In a recent meeting with the Department of Health the association was told the provincial government hasn't heard anything either.

"Because we don't know, we have concerns about what will actually end up being out there," said Barrett.

"We're worried about ease of access, ease of registration, what will be covered. All sorts of things that we're not aware of that we can't pass on to our patients, because they're asking us every day, when does this come and what do I get?"

As the federal program is currently set up, targeting benefits toward children under 12, it has been little used, probably because an existing provincial program already provides good coverage for people under 18..

The most recent records from the federal government show 780 children have accessed the program, which is about four per cent of children under 12 on the Island. Those 780 children were from 470 families. By contrast, the provincial government says its program offered service to 5,629 children under 12 from July of last year through to June.

Coordination of provincial and federal programs is one of Barrett's concerns. He would like to see the federal program move in a way that covers the people who need it the most but aren't covered provincially.

Reduce bureaucracy

Another issue is a shortage of dentists.

The number of dentists on the Island hasn't changed much in the last 20 years, he said. In the meantime, the population has grown 25 per cent.

In addition, even those dentists the province does have are struggling to hire hygienists and assistants, making dental appointments that much harder to book.

Because dentists are already very busy, said Barrett, it is important for the federal government to reduce bureaucracy associated with the program as much as possible.

"We're really hoping that it is a decent program that is easy for the dentists to use, that's it's not a big administrative burden for the front office staff," he said.

"If the dentists are already really busy and there are problems with the new federal plan then they may be hesitant to take them on as new patients even if they could."

Further expansions of the federal benefit will follow those being announced in January, with full implementation planned by 2025.

The P.E.I. government says it is difficult to assess the potential impact of the federal plans, given the lack of detail.