Delivering urgent oral healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa: supporting sustainable local development

England, Rachael; Paterson, Andrew James; Jones, Adam

doi:10.1177/20501684211029420

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(15 reference statements)

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“…The partnership between dental training charities (e.g., the UK-based Bridge2Aid) and the Tanzanian government has also played a pivotal role in advancing the primary goals of the plan, significantly contributing to the reduction in caries prevalence [19][20][21]. This highlights the importance of government policy and collaborative efforts in improving oral health outcomes in underserved communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Analysis of Dental Health Outcomes from Two Outreach Camps in Zanzibar, Tanzania: 2019 and 2023

Al Harthy,

Al Ismaili,

Qutieshat

2024

Oral

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Background: In low- and middle-income countries, oral health is frequently marginalized due to limited dental care access. This cross-sectional study assesses the outcomes of dental outreach camps in Zanzibar, Tanzania, organized in 2019 and 2023, to understand their impact on addressing local oral health needs over a four-year span. Methods: The study involved a thorough examination and analysis of clinical dental health data from both outreach camps. In 2019, 224 patients were examined, and in 2023, the number increased to 354. The assessment covered various dental health parameters, including dental caries, DMFT/dmft indices, enamel fluorosis, dental trauma, oral mucosa lesions, and non-carious tooth surface loss. Results: The analysis demonstrated a significant reduction in dental caries among adolescents and teens, decreasing from 62.5% in 2019 to 35.59% in 2023 (p < 0.0001). Similarly, the prevalence of teeth missing due to caries showed marked reductions from 40.2% to 9.04% in adolescents and teens (p < 0.0001) and from 25.89% to 11.86% among preschool and school-aged children (p = 0.004). Moreover, a significant change was observed in the Basic Erosive Wear Examination (BEWE) scores, with cases showing no erosive tooth wear (BEWE = 0) decreasing from 49.1% to 33.3% (p = 0.016), and cases with initial loss of enamel surface texture (BEWE = 1) increasing from 47.3% to 61% (p = 0.044). Conclusions: The outreach camps conducted in 2019 and 2023 showed tangible improvements in certain dental health metrics, particularly a reduction in dental caries and missing teeth due to caries among adolescents and teens. However, the uptick in non-carious tooth surface loss points to emerging dental health concerns. These results underline the importance of sustained and targeted dental health interventions to improve oral health outcomes in underserved communities such as Zanzibar.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Analysis of Dental Health Outcomes from Two Outreach Camps in Zanzibar, Tanzania: 2019 and 2023

Al Harthy,

Al Ismaili,

Qutieshat

2024

Oral

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“…Interestingly whilst certain Western countries have embraced a wider OHWF skill mix [33][34][35], the AFR is ahead with almost a 1:1 ratio. The role of mid-level providers in delivering healthcare generally has been advocated for the AFR [5], embraced by countries such as Rwanda [29,30], and being explored in Sierra Leone [7,31], Tanzania [36], and Malawi [37] in line with workforce research and guidance [11,38]. Integrating oral health within AFR primary healthcare (PHC) [5,8], whereby community health workers deliver most essential basic oral healthcare [5], with the latter acting as entry points to the health system, will clearly be vitally important for the future.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Workforce capacity building should be contextually appropriate to deliver UHC in a sustainable manner rather than merely following traditional dentist-focused approaches. Greater collaboration has been strongly recommended to support capacity building [15,39,53], ideally working in partnership (involving co-production) [11,28,31,52] with successful examples emerging [29,36,37]. African countries may explore working together creatively to rethink the shape of health systems specific to their current needs and share learning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oral Health Workforce in Africa: A Scarce Resource

Gallagher

Savage

Crummey

et al. 2023

IJERPH

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The World Health Organization (WHO) African Region (AFR) has 47 countries. The aim of this research was to review the oral health workforce (OHWF) comprising dentists, dental assistants and therapists, and dental prosthetic technicians in the AFR. OHWF data from a survey of all 47 member states were triangulated with the National Health Workforce Accounts and population data. Descriptive analysis of workforce trends and densities per 10,000 population from 2000 to 2019 was performed, and perceived workforce challenges/possible solutions were suggested. Linear regression modelling used the Human Development Index (HDI), years of schooling, dental schools, and levels of urbanization as predictors of dentist density. Despite a growth of 63.6% since 2010, the current workforce density of dentists (per 10,000 population) in the AFR remains very low at 0.44, with marked intra-regional inequity (Seychelles, 4.297; South Sudan 0.003). The stock of dentists just exceeds that of dental assistants/therapists (1:0.91). Workforce density of dentists and the OHWF overall was strongly associated with the HDI and mean years of schooling. The dominant perceived challenge was identified as ‘mal-distribution of the workforce (urban/rural)’ and ‘oral health’ being ‘considered low priority’. Action to ‘strengthen oral health policy’ and provide ‘incentives to work in underserved areas’ were considered important solutions in the region. Whilst utilising workforce skill mix contributes to overall capacity, there is a stark deficit of human resources for oral health in the AFR. There is an urgent need to strengthen policy, health, and education systems to expand the OHWF using innovative workforce models to meet the needs of this region and achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

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Delivering urgent oral healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa: supporting sustainable local development

Cited by 2 publications

References 11 publications

Comparative Analysis of Dental Health Outcomes from Two Outreach Camps in Zanzibar, Tanzania: 2019 and 2023

Comparative Analysis of Dental Health Outcomes from Two Outreach Camps in Zanzibar, Tanzania: 2019 and 2023

Oral Health Workforce in Africa: A Scarce Resource

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