Financial help for dentists and their families

Denis Daly explains how the Irish Dental Benevolent Society is there for you and your family when the need arises

The Irish Dental Benevolent Society (IDBS) provides financial assistance for dentists and/or their families when the need arises. The IDBS was set up in 1949 by Dr John Daunt and a group of other dentists with the aim of raising funds to help dentists or their dependants in financial trouble. It is a registered charity, and has been continuously active in doing so over the last 65 years.

The society helps those in need by supplementing income, protecting the family home mortgage, helping to educate dependents, helping to meet health costs or nursing home costs, helping with insurance premiums and helping with one-off expenses.

The help provided is purely financial, but informal advice is given in some situations, and the society is linked with the newly formed Practitioner Health Matters Programme.

The society helps those in need by supplementing income, protecting the family home mortgage, helping to educate dependents, helping to meet health costs or nursing home costs, helping with insurance premiums and helping with one-off expenses

Your help

The recent recession has reduced the available fund and increased the demand for help. The best help we can get from fellow dentists is by making donations to the society’s fund. If everybody contributed €10, €20, a discretionary amount per month or made a yearly contribution of a set amount, it would go a long way.

Donations of €250 and above per annum to charities allow a tax refund to be claimed, which is an enormous boost to the society’s fund. Bequests and larger donations are, of course, very welcome.

Fund raising at class reunions and supporting any IDBS events is another way to help. Perhaps the most important way of helping is by telling colleagues of the existence of the society, both to support the society financially and making people aware of our assistance should the need ever arise.

Support matters

I have supported the society for the last 20 years and was asked to become involved with the committee a few years ago.

We do not get much sympathy from the public, so support from the profession is invaluable. Bad luck or illness can catch anybody out at any time. The society is small and can only ever provide help at a basic level, but it is at this very basic level that I think each ounce of support matters.

Dr Denis Daly BA BDentSc DGDP RCS DipClin Dent qualified in 1990 and is in practice in Rathfarnham, Dublin. He has been a vocational trainer and served on the committees of the Irish Dental Association and the Irish Endodontic Society. He is the current president of the Irish Dental Benevolent Society. To find out more about the society, visit www.idbs.ie.