A host of hoteliers in Northern Ireland have unknowingly become embroiled in an episode of illegal dental tourism for providing venue space for the provision and promotion of unregistered dentistry by overseas dental providers.
The BBC reported that hotel premises in Northern Ireland were allegedly being utilised by overseas dental providers, seemingly for the purpose of marketing their services to an in-person audience. For some attendees, however, attendance reportedly involved intra-oral examinations and assessments, amounting to illegal practice when neither the hotel nor the dentist had registered with the relevant regulators. This is the General Dental Council (GDC) for dentists and the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) for the buildings in which health care is provided.
The hoteliers involved were unaware of illegal activity taking place on their premises. Where concerns arose about unregistered dental consultations in Northern Ireland hotels, the overseas provider received cease-and-desist letters, prompting the cancellation of some upcoming events in Belfast.
Importantly, the absence of dental treatment being provided during these pop-up consultations does not absolve unregistered overseas dental practices of illegal clinical activity, since intraoral examinations and the provision of treatment plans constitutes dentistry.
Dr Paul Brennan, chair of the Northern Ireland branch of the British Dental Association (BDA), said he attended one such event, during which he had his teeth examined.
“You don’t have to do anything on them apart from an examination. Someone looking into your mouth and telling you, I think you need x, y and z, is dentistry,” he told BBC News NI.
The concern voiced by Brennan is not limited to the provision of dentistry by non-registered overseas dentists but also extends to the consequences of marketing overseas dental treatment from Northern Ireland hotel venues. Like the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland has seen the impact of dental tourism on its population’s teeth, with the British Dental Association (BDA) reporting “serious dental complications” from treatment abroad.
A further concern of the BDA is that the RQIA simply does not have enough power to take enforcement or legislative action against dental pop-up clinics in Northern Ireland. In lieu of taking punitive action, correspondence with the hotels emphasised their legal responsibilities, with the view of preventing future illegal dentistry.
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