DDH: Carving a Niche in Premium Affordable, Accessible Dental Health Services

For two decades, Divine Dental Home, DDH, a leading family dental clinic in Nigeria, has carved a niche in ensuring affordable and accessible dental health services for all. Billed to commemorate its 20 years anniversary on Friday, August 27, the Medical Director, Dr Olukayode Adeyanju, details the journey so far and the unveiling of its absolute exclusive DDH Deluxe in Victoria Island area of Lagos State. Rebecca Ejifoma reports

The Medical Director of Divine Dental Home (DDH), Dr Olukayode Adeyanju is proud of how far DDH has come in the last two decades. Thanks to its already established arm offices across Lagos State, DDH is marking the anniversary with the opening of a small house for its new arm of clinic, specially designed for the topnotch clients in Victoria Island area of the state. “We have one our head office in VI, then we have another one in Ikorodu, Ketu, then one starting up in Isolo. We are now opening a new arm that will be exclusive for the high earning individuals in VI.”

DDH is in the dental industry with the mindset to bring to Nigerians a premium dental care that is affordable and accessible through information and awareness. “So on that background we decided to begin to take our practice hoping for a chain of networks of clinics, which we are prospecting”, he posited.

According to the MD, two key attributes stand DDH out. He listed, “We are customer centric. Everything we do revolves around our patients. So in Nigeria we make our services friendly and our fees quite affordable. We know Nigerians have challenges when it comes to healthcare, so we have extremely warm reception. That’s why we use the word ‘dental home’ where you feel warmth, care and hospitality.”

DDH services caters to all Nigerians including the middle class and the premium. In the words of Adeyanju, “We look at most people who can afford dental care as people who are a bit informed and educated. Although our primary target audience is the A class, we are now opening an arm for the B and A class also so it cuts across all Nigerians. And now because we have a Nigerian flavour we don’t want to make our services exclusive for privilege. We are opening locations in neighbourhoods that are not primarily premium like in Isolo, and Ikorodu.”

Despite its services to Nigerians at all levels, the medical director noted that the quality of their services does not drop, as it takes them closer to people in such neighbourhoods. This is as it makes its services a bit lower than what it would charge in Victoria Island, and in Ikeja.

Sharing the list of services DDH offers, Adeyanju described DDH as a conglomerate of specialists. “We have about five different specialists. So it’s not just a clinic but also a specialist hospital, in the sense that we have an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Even if you want to do an operation we have an orthodontist. We have an implantologist who does braces. We have a cosmetic dentist, if you want to make your teeth whiter, cleaner and beautify your smile, smile enhancement therapy, smile overall. We also have an endodontist then we have general practitioners. We have several specialists all working together in DDH.

For the dentist, the gateway to the body is the mouth, and the mirror to the world is one’s teeth and smile. One for a growing child that won’t lack self esteem, all your education might be in vain if a young growing teenage girl lacks confidence in her smile. “The mirror especially in growing kids is their smile. And we see children growing up with crooked teeth and their mates calling them funny things which makes them see themselves poorly and undermine their potential, that’s one in terms of growing up psychology.”

He, however, said the gum is the most abused part of the human body. “Now in general body health, the gum is the most abused part of the human body. The gum can take so much just like the heart, there are some diseases called non-communicable diseases, that is diseases that don’t shout loud but kill silently. Number one is diabetes, most people have diabetes but don’t know until the extreme stage. Number two is hypertension, most people have high BP but don’t know until the extreme stage.

Adeyanju harped on the grave consequences of gum disease. “Number three is gum disease. Gum disease is when your gums are infected but the danger is that it doesn’t shout, it doesn’t say I have pain, it doesn’t give headache or ache the tummy. But gum disease has some dangerous complications. It causes bad breath which most people have and they won’t know. It also causes bleeding gum which most people take for granted. But unfortunately this bleeding gum can affect premature babies in pregnant women.

“If a woman has a very infected gum it will affect the baby, most people who have Corona barely survived they have underlying disease like diabetes, cardiac problems. Once you have covid your body becomes compromised to fight because of this underlying disease. Same thing when you have gum disease and you have underlying cardiac problems, it could result in stroke but unfortunately we don’t have data in Nigeria, so there’s no way we can monitor this, but when you go to developed countries , if you enter a dental clinic it is mandatory they check your gum, your bp because it’s been linked to your life expectancy.”

Speaking to THISDAY, the DDH boss added that when the gum becomes swollen and infected, bad breath becomes the effect. “Indeed, gum disease affects people globally. It makes the gum feel swollen, becomes loose and it bleeds when an individual brushes. Then you notice that your teeth begin to feel wider or scattered. All these things don’t affect your life; you still jump around, drive your car, enter your bus, eat your food.

“By the time you know you have a problem is when you occasionally drink something and you feel sharp pain, then you run to the chemist like a typical Nigerian and the chemist also will give you the wrong diagnosis then by the time you resort to the dental clinic a lot of damage would have been done. So gum disease and dental caries are major dental diseases affecting Nigerians. That is why we recommend that Nigerians, especially the moment you are 30 years and above, see your dentist once yearly and ask for scaling, polishing, and dental checkup.”

While the dental expert conceded that tooth decay is another major problem Nigerians live with after periodontal or gum disease, he emphasised, “Tooth decay is when you have food trapped in between your teeth or when you drink water your teeth is sensitive or when you take something sweet, you feel like picking and it’s painful. But you know the tooth is the strongest tissue in the mouth so usually you will not feel tooth decay until after two or three years of active disease. So if you have a tooth decay now you won’t know until three years later.”

Meanwhile, Adeyanju recommended everyone visits the dentist twice yearly. “We encourage Nigerians whenever you drink or eat something sweet and feel sensitive, see your dentist for a checkup. You should see a dentist at least once a year. Ideally, it’s twice a year but worst case scenario once in a year. You check your teeth, your gums, your soft tissue, your palate and your tongue then the dentist will help you remove all the plaque and calculus that are trapped in between your teeth and inside your gums.”

As a dental expert, whose dental home boasts of colossal strides in two decades, Adeyanju advised most dental clinics who are starting not to practice based on money. “At DDH, we have core values that have guided us over the years. When everything changes, those values don’t change. You know we have witnessed several governments. We have witnessed bank closure, but our values remain the same. “Number one value in DDH is service, then humility, trustworthiness, and friendliness.”

DDH is known for corporate social responsibilities (CSR), the MD assured. It carries out its CSR once or twice a year by visiting schools, giving dental talks, distributing toothbrushes, and toothpaste.

Adeyanju chipped in, “Like now, in our 20 years we are trying to get some widows together and tell them the importance of oral care and give them palliatives like rice and other things to support them. Then of course we go to orphanages and give some things to those children and tell them the importance of oral care, too. We believe that CSR is part of our policy in DDH.”

Expressing gratitude to God, the expert hinted that DDH is a brand that cuts across Nigeria and is a bit on the moderate side. “From the beginning our vision is to make sure that we are affordable and accessible yet premium. However, over the years we found out that, by God’s grace, we are having quite a big raise of high net individuals who want to enjoy a bit of privacy.

“We have a few folks who come with their officer, entourage and they want to be private and in our office they really don’t like the idea. In their thirst for something more exclusive we are giving them this special wing for absolute privacy, exclusiveness and want to enjoy the best of trying to save foreign currency so they can come to DDH Deluxe. So it’s like we have a big lounge where you can come in and enjoy your privacy while you get your treatment done.”