Uganda’s struggle to provide safe and accessible dental care is being compounded by a shortage of licensed practitioners, with the Ministry of Health revealing that only about half of the 1,330 registered dental practitioners have active licences to practice.
The Ministry warns that the gap is leaving unsuspecting members of the public vulnerable to quacks and underqualified practitioners, some of whom operate from facilities that do not meet the required standards.
Dr Stavia Turyahabwe, the Commissioner for Communicable Disease Prevention and Control at the Ministry of Health, said the situation is particularly worrying given the high burden of oral diseases in the country.
She said 37.2 per cent of Uganda’s population lives with oral health problems, ranging from common conditions such as bad breath and dental caries to serious complications requiring specialised treatment.
The burden is even more pronounced among children aged between six and 12 years. A 2021 survey found that 35 per cent of children in this age group suffer from severe dental caries, many of which remain untreated. Yet, only about four per cent of them have access to proper dental care.
Dr Gilvas Mubangizi, a dental surgeon who heads the Ministry of Health’s oral health services section, said the problem persists into adulthood, with 52 per cent of adults aged between 35 and 44 years experiencing oral health problems.
He said many adults, however, do not seek timely treatment, allowing relatively manageable dental conditions to progress into more complex problems.
Mubangizi also revealed that only 16 per cent of registered oral health practitioners are employed by the government, further limiting access to affordable and regulated dental services. He, like Turyahabwe, raised concern over complex oral procedures being performed by underqualified practitioners, particularly in some private facilities.
Asked what the government is doing to address the problem, Mubangizi acknowledged that supervision remains a major challenge. He said regulatory bodies are now reviewing guidelines governing private practice to clearly define the roles and scope of practice for each category of oral health professional.
Mubangizi said the public is largely unaware of the different roles and responsibilities of oral health practitioners, with providers licensed under both the Allied Health Practitioners Council and the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council. He cited orthodontic treatment, commonly associated with braces, as an example of an increasingly popular service that is being offered by different dental clinics in Kampala.
According to Mubangizi, orthodontic treatment should be prescribed and managed by appropriately qualified dental specialists, including dental surgeons with the requisite training and orthodontists.
However, Uganda has a very limited number of specialists in these fields. Data from the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Register shows that the country has only 26 dental surgeons and nine oral and maxillofacial surgeons.
The Ministry says the shortage of qualified personnel, inadequate access to services and weak supervision are among the major gaps it hopes to address through a new oral health strategy currently in its final stages of development.
Ministry officials say they require an estimated 131 billion Shillings to comprehensively improve oral health services, including addressing gaps in human resources, regulation, access to care and specialised treatment-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
