In the office of Doctor Didier Blaise, the patients parade this morning. The dentist is on call, in other words: he is the only one available in the whole territory of Belfort. In the space of three hours, he has to deal with dozens of cases: “I’m overwhelmed, it’s a crazy rhythm” he sighs, continuing the consultations. It has been 33 years since the health professional has been installed in the city of the Lion.
Since my beginnings, the number of dentists has been halved in the department. How do you expect us to get out of this? The replacement must arrive quickly. Otherwise, we’re not going to make it.
Didier Blaise, who is also president of the confederation of dental unions in the Territoire de Belfort, specifies that at the same time, “thehe population has increased in the department“. And in these holiday periods, when many practitioners are on rest, the situation becomes explosive. Some patients come to see him from Montbéliard, and even from further afield sometimes. “It is so difficult to get an appointment, I know people who go to Strasbourg for treatment! Do you realize a bit?” Doctor Blaise gets annoyed.
– Arnaud Roszak
Very angry patients
This morning, for his day on call, the cases are very often similar: cavities and abscesses. During the consultations, the phone rings every 5 minutes. “I try to accept as much as possible but I quickly get saturatedexplains the doctor. Sometimes I give advice, or I say call back the next day. It often happens that I get insulted or hang up on my face. It’s very hard. I love my job, but I am losing contact with the patient more and more. Still, that’s the most important thing to me.” Inès, she managed to have an appointment this morning for a painful gum.
I had a dentist for a long time. But he retired and was never replaced. I called as soon as possible for my gum. I was lucky to see the world there…
Doctor Pierre-Olivier Donnat, national president of the Syndicate of Dental Surgeons of France and president of the Regional Union of Health Professionals confirms the sad trend: since 1990 the number of dental practitioners in France has decreased by approximately half. Franche-Comté is even worse off because it has a rate of dental surgeons below the national average, as is often the case in rural areas. In the Territoire de Belfort, there are seventy-five practitioners, or fifty-four percent of the population.
For him, beyond the lack of attractiveness of the region, the real problem lies in the number of doctors trained. To overcome this, several faculties of dental surgery are opening their doors at the start of the school year, including two in Bourgogne Franche-Comté, in Dijon and Besançon. Each will welcome thirty students each year. But the training of doctors takes time and it will therefore still be necessary to be patient for the North Franc-Comtois who wish to treat their teeth.