APPLICABILITY of DENTAL PATIENT REPORTED OUTCOMES in LOW RESOURCE SETTINGS -A CALL to BRIDGE the GAP in CLINICAL and COMMUNITY DENTISTRY.

Abstract

Low resource settings (LRSs) are typically regions where inadequate healthcare resources exist and the healthcare system does not meet the acceptable global standards. The problems encountered in LRS in oral and dental medicine could be related to lack of human personnel, e.g., insufficient numbers of dentists and other dental professionals, poor infrastructure, limited or remote treatment/care facilities, lack of dental materials and supplies as well as inadequate monitoring and evaluation of public health programs. Despite the limited human resources in LRS, such settings are currently experiencing a brain drain, a situation where there is massive emigration of highly trained and qualified healthcare professionals including dentists to other countries for better living conditions. To allocate health resources judiciously, exploration of alternatives to traditional oral health assessments, which are cheap, easily available, and patient-oriented, becomes pertinent. Thus, there is a need to consider the applicability of oral assessment tools such as dental patient-reported outcomes (dPROs) in general, and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in particular. Therefore, the aim of this narrative review was to describe opportunities for the applicability of dPROs in LRSs with a focus on Nigeria, based on empirical data. The applicability of dPROs and OHRQoL in LRS includes prevention, screening, diagnosis, assessment of oral health impact, application of the first step of targeted treatment, treatment evaluation, planning, and monitoring of public health programs, as well as research needs. dPROs could be very useful in LRS because their practical advantages may be utilized to improve patient and population health.