The Health Service Executive (HSE) is being called on to provide additional resources for its orthodontic service in Kerry.
Cllr Tommy Griffin said that there is currently a five-and-half year waiting list for eligible children to get braces through the public system.
The Fine Gael councillor described this as “absolutely outrageous”.
He said, on one hand, children reach secondary school without ever having had a school dental appointment; while on the other, they age out of the children's service at the age of 16.
Cllr Griffin said “we can’t stand over” a system that makes children wait five and a half years for treatment.
Kerry County Council will now write the HSE about the matter.
He said he is aware of a teenage boy who was waiting years for a public orthodontic appointment, but had it cancelled after his 16th birthday.
Cllr Griffin believes that if the state doesn't have the resources for publicly supported dental services, it needs to look to the private providers to step in.
