Why isn’t Smiles Dental absorbing the cost of PPE?

The global demand has significantly increased the cost of PPE since the COVID-19 outbreak, we have therefore had to introduce a safety tariff for private patients. We cannot charge this tariff to medical card patients under the rules set out by HSE.

Since we reopened our doors after lockdown there is a need for additional PPE to meet the safety standards required. Global demand during the pandemic has also increased the cost for PPE significantly. The Government is not providing PPE for medical card treatments and unfortunately it is not possible for us to cover the additional cost whilst ensuring the practice remains open to treat patients in the long term.