A former, deputy Vice-chancellor (academics) at the University of Ibadan, Professor Gbemisola Oke in an appraisal of the massive emigration of dentists out in Nigeria says there is the need to introduce low-cost dental units to be manned by dental therapists and hygienists.
Professor Oke, who spoke at the Nigerian Dental Association (NDA) Oyo State Chapter’s annual general meeting and 2022 scientific conference on the theme “The Fate of Dentistry in Oyo State in the Era of Brain Drain” stated that this is a possible solution to mitigating the effect of the brain drain in the dental field and to meet the oral health needs of the populace using the basic package of oral health.
Professor Oke said by the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of 1 dentist to a population of 5,000, Nigeria will need at least 36,000 full-time dentists and meeting this requirement will be difficult given current efforts to mitigate or reverse the emigration of health workers.
She said that the haphazard numbers of emigrated health workers reeled out every day need to be standardised based on the migration index to ensure the problem is better understood by everybody and to proffer possible solutions.
She declared, “dental therapists and hygienists could increase the oral health workforce if we allow them expanded role. They can be entrusted to work in rural areas to meet the oral health needs of the population using the basic package of oral health.
“I know that the issues of quackery and perharps the possibility of them going beyond bounds. It is just a suggestion. It may be the time to reappraise our position on task shifting and act accordingly.
“In addition, we need to create awareness because dental care is expensive. We should prevent dental problems than wait for expensive treatment. So when we integrate these workers, they can do the awareness creation.
Also, the introduction of low-cost dental units to dental hospitals is important, so that where we don’t have dentists, dental therapists and hygienists will be available and they can make referrals. With proper training and monitoring of lower cadre manpower, they can be enabled to function in that capacity
“We also need to agitate for increased coverage of dental procedures in the National Health Insurance Scheme as a part of what is needed to ensure the good oral health of Nigerians.”
Permanent Secretary of Oyo state Hospital Management Board and Chairman at the occasion, Dr Muftua Ayoola assured that the state government was looking at mitigating the effect of the emigration of health workers in the state because of its toll on the quality of health care services, job overload on available health workers and health indexes of the state.
