‘ Nigerians risk oral diseases over shortage of dentists’
THE Nigeria Dental Association ( NDA) has reiterated the need to improve the working conditions of dentists to prevent their migration abroad for better opportunities.
NDA President, Dr Tope Adeyemi, who spoke to The Guardian on the issue of dental density ratio, salaries, inadequate equipment, and other challenges facing dentists, revealed that there is one dentist for every 53,828 people in the country.
Adeyemi, an Assistant professor at the Department of Child Dental Health, Bayero University, Kano, said the figure falls short of the World Health Organisation ( WHO) recommended 1 to 5,000 people, warned against Nigerians having oral diseases. It is reported that poor oral hygiene can lead to dental cavities and gum disease and has also been linked to heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
The president, who doubles as a consultant orthodontist said improved salaries, better working conditions, and availability of equipment and materials within hospitals are crucial in retaining dentists in the country.
“The shortage is both acute and chronic in the sense that it runs far short of WHO recommendations. We are looking at ways to mitigate or improve these numbers by producing more dentists. The Minister of Health has asked the dental and medical schools to double their intakes while maintaining the standard of training.
“Another approach is looking at the factors that are making people leave the country. You can produce 100 dentists and double it to 200. If there are no factors that will keep those 200 people in the country, they will still leave the country.
“So, we need to improve the salaries of doctors, their working conditions, the availability of equipment and materials within the hospitals. We have highly skilled doctors employed in government hospitals, but there are no materials, or equipment to work with and over time, such individuals get frustrated and leave the country.
“Also, there is a need to improve on security architecture; the insecurity and high cost of living are making some people leave. So, we need to improve on some of these factors so that those who have left will be encouraged to come back, and doctor population ratio will improve and move closer to the WHO recommendation, then we will have a reduction in the burden of oral diseases and healthier nation.”
In a related development, a study published by the National College of Ireland titled, “The reasons for migration in the Nigerian health sector: A case study of Lagos University Teaching Hospital ( LUTH) and Federal Medical Centre, Asaba ( FMC)” found high proportion of Nigerian health workers having the intention to migrate, and this will further worsen the poor health indices in the country and overburden the remaining health workers in the country.
The author, Njogwuani Ifeoma Sophia said: “Challenges in the Nigerian health sector are many and have been lingering for a long while. These include, inadequate training, lack of funding, which has led to owed salaries, poor welfare, lack of good health facilities and crisis among health workers and all these have prevented optimal health care delivery.
“Low and inequitable distribution of health workers in the country can also be attributed to brain drain experienced in the health sector in the form of migration of health workers to high- income countries.”