As part of efforts to draw awareness on oral health in Nigeria, the
Association of Private Dental Practitioners in Nigeria (APDPN), a body
that specialises in the management of oral health, have lamented the
dearth of standard dental clinics in the country to properly tackle oral
health issues in the country.
Speaking during the Association’s Annual
General Meeting in Lagos recently, the President of the group, Dr.
Bidemi Dawodu, said despite Nigeria having about 896 dentists, the
country still has dearth of good dental clinic to address issues
relating to oral health.
He said since the past three years when
the association was birthed they have given their quota in this regards
towards oral health in the country. “We have been working with
governments to build standard clinics. We hope to see that if possible
all the 774 local government areas in Nigeria have their own dental
clinics and most importantly we have been following up on the oral
health service that was launched about two years ago.
“About two years ago, a comprehensive
policy was launched then in Abuja by the former Senate President, David
Mark in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. The policy aim is to
ensure that dental services are made available to Nigerians. To spread
it all over the 774 local government areas in the country and see that
every local government has its own dental clinic,” he said.
He revealed that the policy to ensure
there were good dental services across the country was yet to be
implemented by the government, hence the association was calling on the
government to put action to it.
“One thing is to formulate a policy and
it’s another thing to implement it. The implementation has not been seen
till now. We need government to be courageous enough to implement it,
so that the country will be better off in terms of oral health.
Martins Ifijeh
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