 |
Oral health is a sad state of affairs in Pakistan.
About 95 percent of the people in Pakistan have some kind of untreated dental disease.
Pakistanis are nowhere near the levels in which they should be for oral health based on World Health Organization standards. Many people aren’t even aware of dental services available in their area. The ratio of dentists to people should be at least one dentist for every 20,000 people, according to the World Health Organization. In Pakistan, the best estimates state that there is one dentist for every 200,000 people—and in many areas the figures are even worse.
There are only about 8,500 practicing dentists and 13,000 registered dentists in the entire country. There is no oral health plan to speak of.
The Islamabad Medical and Dental College recently gathered to discuss the future of oral health in the country. Dental colleges are producing about 3,000 graduates each year but that has yet to make a dent on the major shortage of practicing dentists.
One of the main problems is that many of the graduates are women and 70 percent of these women choose not to practice after graduation.
