Minister Carola Schouten for Poverty Policy wants the return of the school dentist in order to give children from poor families access to this form of care again, she says in an interview with the AD. Despite the fact that oral care up to the age of 18 is free, one in five children never visit the dentist.
“There are people who no longer go to the dentist because they can’t afford it. They are not afraid of the dentist, but of the dentist’s bill. Their children do not go to the dentist either,” the minister said. newspaper.
According to Schouten, avoiding the dentist at a young age can have major consequences. They therefore run the risk of being confronted with higher costs later in life. The minister says that bad teeth “can not only affect your health, but can also lead to less self-confidence or even shame.”
She points out that in the past her entire class was sent to the school dentist, so there was no risk of stigmatization. “So you can set up that much more broadly. After all, those children are insured. How you design that, whether it has to be with such a bus or whether the dentist comes to school, we can talk about that. But if that means that children later If you don’t have the fear or shame for bad teeth anymore, it’s worth it.”