239 dentists pulled out of a scheme for medical-card patients in the space of 15 months.
They withdrew between January of last year and this March, leaving less than 1,100 dentists are currently signed up.
The scheme entitles medical card-holders to limited services, like two fillings a year.
President of the Irish Dental Association, Caroline Robins, says it needs a radical overhaul:
"If my patient needs gum treatment, that's what I should be able to provide them. Not be told that I can give them two fillings in a year when they may not need two fillings in the year. So it's very a constrained scheme, and I think it's broken so I think in like any industry or profession, throwing money at it isn't solving the problem."
