Shortage of funds hindering maintenance of oral health

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School children brushing their teeth PHOTO COURTESY

Nairobi,KENYA:The Government has been urged to pump more budgets to training of more dentists that will be able to fight the dental diseases in the country.

Speaking during the National Oral Health Mouth day , outgoing chairman for  the Kenya dental association Dr. Tim Theuri , noted that, the ratio of dentists to patients in Kenya now stands at 1-45,000 against WHO recommended’s 1-7000 .

Theuri added that only 60,000 dentists are trained in Kenya, which is very low compared to the number of patients witnessed every year in hospitals.

“Only 60,000 dentists get to be trained every year bearing in mind that oral diseases are among most the most expensive diseases to treat especially with the low budget we have by the government” Theuri said.

Speaking in the same event, Dr.Mureithi Miriam from the ministry of health said that only 25 percent of adults in Kenya do visit the dentist every year, making 75 percent of Kenyans unaware of the importance of visiting a dentist after every 6 months.

Miriam added that the ministry was in the process of putting together an oral health campaign in Kenyan schools.

“95 percent of adults are reported suffer from bleeding gums problems, this means it is not enough to just brush your teeth but rather how to maintain its cleanness and do some checkups after every six months” Miriam said.

The event which is held every 1st of October, saw 16 children awarded scholarships courtesy of Colgate and another 75000 get free teeth screening .

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