Abstract
To describe the current oral health care needs and the number and category of dental personnel required to provide necessary services in South Africa (SA). This is a review of the current disease burden based on local epidemiological studies and the number of oral health personnel registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). In SA, oral health services are rendered by oral hygienists, dental therapists, dentists, and dental specialists. Dental caries remains one of the most prevalent conditions, and much of them are untreated. The majority of oral care providers are employed in the private sector even though the majority of the population access the public sector which only offers a basic package of oral care. The high prevalence of caries could be prevented and treated by the public sector. The infrastructure at primary health care facilities needs to be improved so that dentists performing community service can be more effectively utilized. At present, SA requires more dental therapists and oral hygienists to be trained at the academic training institutions.
Highlights
Human resource needs, planning, and management are essential in the delivery of quality health care services
The this paper, we review a number of dental professionals registered with the Health Professional data wasofobtained from the Health Professions of South
Much of this disease burden could be addressed by appropriate oral hygiene instructions, fluoride applications, and fissure sealants, all of which could be delivered by dental therapists and oral hygienists
Summary
Human resource needs, planning, and management are essential in the delivery of quality health care services. The most common oral health personnel are dentists (77%) followed by oral hygienists (15%), dental therapists (8%) and dental specialists (5%) [7]. If most oral personnel are trained to provide curative and rehabilitative care, preventive services may be reduced, leading to an increase in the prevalence of dental caries and other dental diseases. Are the dentists and dental specialists who focus on dental rehabilitation, including health care level, the demand for specialized rehabilitative services should decrease. If this model fixed orthodontic implantand placement, and specialized curative care including were prostheses, followed, the demand forservices, oral hygienists dental therapists should be much higher than for endodontics, pulpotomies and pulpectomies
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