Health Ministry Warns Quack Dental Practitioners Are Putting Lives at Risk

The Ministry of Health has warned that unregulated dental practice is putting patients at risk, with unqualified practitioners performing complex procedures beyond their training and professional scope.

 

Dr Stavia Turyahabwe, the Commissioner of Health Services in charge of Communicable Diseases, said some dental technicians and dental assistants are performing complex oral surgeries, advanced restorations and prosthetic procedures that should only be handled by qualified and registered dental surgeons or specialists.

 

“What is the danger of unregulated practice? We find that because these people are unemployed, the majority of them are in private practice, which is not regulated. And this brings dangers,” Turyahabwe said during a media breakfast meeting in Kampala on Wednesday.

 

She warned that errors by unqualified practitioners can leave patients with serious complications, prolonged suffering and expensive retreatment.

 

“A mistake in a dental procedure can cost lives,” she said.

 

Turyahabwe said the shortage of skilled dental professionals is also limiting access to oral healthcare. Uganda has about 1,836 registered oral health professionals, but only 16 percent are deployed in the public sector.

 

The dentist-to-population ratio stands at one dentist for about 110,000 people, compared to the recommended ratio of one dentist for every 7,500 people.

 

Dr Gilvas Mubangizi, a dental surgeon and head of the Ministry’s Oral Health Services Section, said the problem also involves cases of public health dental officers performing complex orthodontic and surgical procedures, raising concerns about practitioners working beyond their training and professional scope.

 

“We have had issues with practice by quacks, people doing work which they are not trained to do, and people providing treatment to patients when they are not licensed to do so,” Mubangizi said.

 

He said some of the procedures have resulted in botched treatment, creating additional costs for patients and their families. He urged the media to help expose quackery in dentistry.

 

The concerns come amid a wider oral health burden in Uganda, with about 37.2 percent of the population affected by oral diseases.

 

Turyahabwe said oral disorders rank 11th among outpatient conditions, yet less than four percent of Ugandans can currently access good oral health services.

 

She said 35 percent of six-year-old children suffer from severe dental caries, affecting their ability to eat and potentially their growth and learning.

 

“A child who cannot chew cannot eat. A child who cannot eat cannot grow. A child who cannot grow cannot learn,” Turyahabwe said.

 

The Ministry also faces an infrastructure gap, with only 25 percent of public health facilities having dental units.

 

To address the challenges, the Ministry is finalising a national oral health strategy that proposes an investment of Shs131 billion to improve access to oral health services.

 

The strategy includes training 5,000 community health extension workers to identify and prevent oral health conditions, expanding supervised toothbrushing in schools and increasing the oral health budget from about one percent to at least two percent of the Ministry of Health budget.

 

The Ministry also plans to expand specialist training and integrate oral health into routine health services so that patients can have their oral health assessed alongside other conditions.

 

The officials urged Ugandans to seek dental treatment from qualified and licensed practitioners to avoid the dangers associated with unregulated practice.