Nigeria Lacks Good Dental Clinics, Says APDPN President

Martins Ifijeh
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.