Orly, Bobigny and Argenteuil are among the municipalities in Île-de-France where there are few dental surgeons. From January 1, their installation in certain places will be limited. Objective: to reduce the imbalance between areas “very under-resourced” with dentists and those which are on the contrary “over-resourced”.
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22,617 municipalities are considered “very under-resourced” in dental surgeons, according to data from Cartosanté. These online maps from the Ministry of Health list the facilities of doctors in France and its overseas departments.
In Île-de-France, they emphasize that few dentists are located in the departments of Seine-et-Marne, Yvelines or even in Essonne. Other municipalities closer to Paris, such as Orly (Val-de-Marne), Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Argenteuil (Val-d'Oise) are not spared from this deficit either.
The zoning established by the ARS according to the distribution of dental surgeons (in green: over-endowed areas, and in red: under-endowed areas).
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© France Télévisions
A lack of dentists that new rules put in place for the first time must try to absorb, from the start of 2025.
In these areas where there are already many dentists, Health Insurance may refuse to approve a new arrival. Consequence: the dentist who still sets up in this territory can treat his patients, but their care would not then be reimbursed. The only exceptions to this rule concern replacements for retirement or cessation of activities.
In Île-de-France, the beautiful neighborhoods of western Paris or the town of Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine) are, for example, part of the 0.2% of over-endowed municipalities. This new measure will therefore apply to almost all of the districts of Paris. This will be the case for the hypercenter and the west of the capital, but also for municipalities in Hauts-de-Seine and a municipality in Yvelines, as we have already indicated.
Note that this list will grow, since the data for certain regions are not yet known.
Dentists see their assistance for installation in these very under-resourced areas double. It is in fact increased to 50,000 euros, if they agree to stay five years in the same territory. A compensation obtained from Health Insurance by two unions of dentists representative of the profession. These measures, ultimately, “are balanced in the sense that they favor more dental surgeons than they penalize“, estimates Julien Cardona, deputy secretary general of CDF (Dental Surgeons of France).
While slightly qualifying his remarks. “If we could have avoided these provisions, we would have been delighted. But every year, the question of the constraint on installation comes up, and we realize that there is a real problem of access to care. We thought it was better to negotiate these constraints, with a more reasonable impact, rather than being imposed unilaterally.“, he adds.
A nuance also followed by the France Assos Santé association, which represents patients.”It's not going to solve everything. We have a problem with the renewal of the profession. These doctors, these retiring dental surgeons“, underlines Catherine Simmonin, member of the office of this organization. She however welcomes “a real step forward for users, to have a little more equity in access to care“.
Another story, however, for students and young graduates. “For us, it is the beginning of a coercive system“, annoys Ralitsa Androlova, president of the National Union of Dental Surgery Students (UNECD). “This system puts an end to the freedom of installation, while one engages in these studies to exercise a liberal profession“, according to her.
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In the meantime, this new measure has given ideas to 237 deputies from several political parties. These parliamentarians have tabled a bill. If it is adopted, a doctor would only be able to set up in an area where the provision of care is already sufficient if a practitioner of the same specialty ceases his activity there.
