JEAN-PHILIPPE THIBAULT, LJI Journalist 

 Dussault would have preferred to use her vacation weeks for something other than finding and attending a dental appointment for herself and her children, 1,000 kilometres from home. 

After exhausting local and regional contacts, she had to resort to contacting her previous dentist near Montreal, more precisely in Longueuil, with whom she had fortunately kept in touch, and where her mother still lives. 

Charlotte Guay-Dussault, a mother of two girls aged three and a half and five and a half, lives in Cap-d’Espoir, part of Percé. Born in Longueuil, she moved to the Gaspé Peninsula in 2018, where she now lives with her partner. The family’s oral health has always been a priority. There was no question of neglecting it. 

Like many, she had to start calling left and right when her regular dentist had to temporarily close his clinic due to an illness in his family, leaving hundreds of patients without dental care. 

“We were supposed to have our appointments the week the dentist had to close urgently, last fall. I had heard that it was difficult to find one, but not to this extent,” she says. 

The young woman hadn’t expected the task to be so challenging. No other clinic in the region was accepting new patients at that time. 

Even on the South Shore of Montreal, appointments don’t fall from the sky. After two weeks of vacation in the metropolitan area, Charlotte Guay-Dussault had to take a third week off to stay with her mother, as the only available time at her dentist’s office was on a Thursday. Her partner left alone with the car for the Gaspé, while the rest of the family booked one-way plane tickets for their return home. However, available flights only took off on Sundays. 

Charlotte Guay-Dussault had to use up a full week of her vacation for a dental appointment some 1,000 kilometres from home. 

“In any case, in the end, I literally had to take five days of vacation to go to the dentist. Before even paying the bill for simple cleanings, it cost me $1,000. I can’t imagine if cavities and braces get involved, or for those who can’t afford them,” she says, somewhat flabbergasted. 

She still considers herself lucky in the circumstances, since she is employed in the public sector, having a little more resources and time than others who are not in the same situation. 

Eighteen calls later 

The mother is not the only one who has had to juggle schedules and plan all the logistics for dental care. Armed with an address book and a her friends from Chandler called all the dentists in the area for her two teenagers, discovering a host of new area codes as she called a little further west: the Gaspé Peninsula, Lower Saint Lawrence, Chaudière-Appalaches, Centre-du-Québec. 

“It was finally the 18th office that agreed to take her on as a new patient… in Quebec City. She doesn’t have any family in town, so she stays in hotels, not to mention the other expenses. She takes a few days off here and there. All that just to go to the dentist, which is basic care, let’s be clear,” stresses Charlotte Guay-Dussault. 

A third friend had to go to Carleton-sur-Mer, a three-hour drive away, for an emergency during the holidays. 

“I don’t blame dentists, who work like crazy and devote themselves body and soul to taking on as many people as possible. On the contrary, I understand that this is a private matter, but access to a dentist should worry us collectively. We need to talk about it,” says Charlotte Guay-Dussault. 

Discreet Public 

Health Directorate 

How many other patients are deprived of a dentist in the Gaspé Peninsula? Is dental tourism widespread in the region? Is the population at risk? What is the overall picture? 

The Gaspé SPEC tried to reach the dental advisor at the Gaspé Peninsula Regional Public Health Directorate to discuss this issue. However, she has not been available in the last month since the initial interview request. 

According to 2014 data, only 54% of the region’s population had consulted a dentist, dental hygienist or orthodontist in the past year, compared to 61.6% for the province as a whole. 

The Gaspé Peninsula Integrated Health and Social Services Centre (CISSS), however, is well aware of the problem. Faced with a lack of resources and the departure of the last dentist in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts in 2021, the establishment has taken steps to maintain service continuity. 

In November of the same year, Health Minister Christian Dubé announced $846,000 in funding to support a pilot project for a dental clinic run by the CISSS. The community clinic opened its doors the following year, in 2022, in the facility vacated by the retired dentist from Sainte-Anne-des-Monts. 

Today, the clinic has a permanent dentist, along with a team of hygienists, assistants and administrative staff. The initial scenario was to add a second permanent dentist. 

“Recruitment remains a challenge, particularly for hygienists and dentists. Indeed, we would like to have two permanent dentists rather than just one. However, we applaud the work of the on-site team, which is able to accommodate a large number of users each week,” explained in an email Lou Landry, who was until recently the spokesperson for the CISSS de la Gaspésie. The organization is responsible for staff recruitment and salaries. 

The Sainte-Anne-des-Monts community clinic focuses on offering dental care to people below the low-income threshold or living in remote areas. 

Due to the shortage of dentists that is affecting almost all parts of the region, residents of Matane—about an hour’s drive from Sainte-Anne-des-Monts—and elsewhere in the Gaspé Peninsula have also been quick to make appointments at the community dental clinic, much to the chagrin of some Haute-Gaspésie residents, who are still left without options. It highlights the ongoing challenges of oral health in the region. 

At the very least, on a more positive note, the clinic that treated Charlotte Guay-Dussault and her family has gradually started operating again since September.