The bad weather was not enough to demobilise professionals from the protest, called by the Union of Dentists (SMD) due to “the spiral of devaluation of the class”.

The protesters hold an umbrella with one hand and a banner with the other that says: “Too many dentists in Portugal. There are dentists going hungry.”

The dentists' demands are also exposed on the banners placed over the stalls placed in front of the steps of the Assembly of the Republic, which read: “SNS dentists have no legal status. Tired of promises, we want careers” or “Dentist checks don’t solve oral health problems. Social benefit at the expense of dentists.”

Protesters also shouted slogans such as “Health plans are a fraud” and “Oral health for all”.

Dentists warn that Portugal has more than twice the number of professionals recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and simultaneously has “one of the worst oral health rates in the European Union”.

“The ratio of 800 inhabitants for each dentist will increase in 2025, to 650 inhabitants for each dentist, which is clearly exaggerated and harmful both for the profession and for the class that is going through the biggest labor crisis since it existed in Portugal ”, highlights the union.

Dentists also demand the regulation of Health Plans, the reformulation of dentist checks, “the immediate reduction of the 'numerous clauses'” and “preventing the opening of another dental medicine course”.

Speaking to the Lusa agency, the president of the union, João Neto, stated that the proposals that led to the demonstration are to “try to somewhat overcome the precariousness, unemployment and underemployment that exists in the class and that will affect younger people”.

“Newly graduated colleagues will emigrate. There are more than 600 who emigrate every year and there are even more serious situations”, said João Neto.

He also argued that it is necessary to “warn students, or anyone who is thinking about taking the Dental Medicine course that they will not have the future perspective that they think, because there are too many dentists”.

Having graduated less than a year ago, Mariana Batista, from Lisbon, pointed out the barriers she has encountered due to health plans that “are often a fraud”, because patients think they are free, but “the advertising is misleading” .

The young dentist reported that, when patients arrive at the office, they have to be explained: “everything about the health plans, that there are no free treatments”.

“It is not possible to have free treatments because we have green receipts and if the patient does not pay, we will not receive it either”, Mariana Batista told Lusa.

“We have an assistant, we have a doctor, we have electricity to pay and it becomes complicated”, lamented the young woman, who participated in the first national demonstration of dentists.

Resistant to rain and wind, the dentists made a point of being present at the protest “for the appreciation of dentists, dentists in the SNS and the oral health of the Portuguese”, said João Neto.

The union president lamented that oral health has been forgotten by successive governments, which is reflected in the State Budget proposal for 2024, in which “there are only two paragraphs about the oral health of the Portuguese”.