Nigeria Has only 39 Orthodontists, Experts Say

The Nigerian Association of Orthodontists (NAO) has decried the disturbing number of registered orthodontists in the country to cater for the over 170 million Nigerians.

The association, which stated this at a media parley in Lagos recently, said with only 39 registered orthodontists, Nigeria has one orthodontist to four million people, whereas in the United States there are about 9,000 orthodontists serving a population of 310 million people (one orthodontist to 35,000 people).

In his speech, the President and Lecturer at College of Medicine, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Dr Ifeoma Utomi, said the association was bent on creating knowledge and awareness for advancing orthodontic education and providing orthodontic care for underserved populations in Nigeria, adding that this number was nothing compared with 4,600 dentists that the country has.

“So, to achieve this, NAO will launch ‘Orthodontic Month on October 5th in Abuja this year. It will be marked by orthodontic outreach with screening and educational programmes in secondary schools. Then the 9th Annual Scientific Conference will follow quickly at the National Hospital Abuja from October 6th-8th

“On the theme, ‘Smile Aesthetics and Psychosocial Wellbeing’, a renowned Nigerian orthodontist in the United Kingdom, Dr Patrick Williams, will be the keynote speaker at the conference in Abuja.

Meanwhile, the President, who said orthodontics was a highly specialised and oldest area of dentistry, defined it as the study of the growth of the face and jaws and the management of maligned teeth and jaws.

According to her, to qualify as an orthodontist in Nigeria, an individual must have undergone a minimum of four years post graduate training in orthodontics, post qualification as a dentist. “These training programmes are coordinated by the National Post-graduate Medical College of Nigeria and the West African College of Surgeons, resulting in Fellowship in orthodontics.

“There are now about six accredited post graduate orthodontic residency programmes in the country;” adding that “Till date, close to forty locally trained orthodontists have graduated from these programmes thus far,” she added.

According to her, the objective of the association, “is to increase knowledge and awareness through education of the causes, prevention and treatment of malocclusion as well as promote further training and research in the special field of orthodontics,” she noted.

She added that on the national level, more centres were getting accredited to train orthodontist.

Also speaking at the meeting, the past President of the association and Associate Professor/ Consultant Orthodontist, College of Medicine, LUTH, Dr. Oluranti Olatokunbo da Costa, enthused, “I think because they are not many, they are about thirty-nine, so for one to be trained, that training has to come from orthodontists who are experienced.

“Right now, hospitals and universities are groaning because they cannot cope with the numbers they are getting for training. So, if the hospitals get adequate subventions, then they can have more facilities that would be adequate to meet the number of persons for training,” she said.

The association, which did not only decry the poor awareness among people on the profession, also urged Nigerians with malocclusion issues to get treatments in the country rather than travel to India to fix braces.