Making health insurance compulsory across the country will help attract funds into Nigeria’s health sector, Bode Karunwi, chairman, Dental Solution, has said.
He further said that Nigeria’s health sector has poorly been funded, pointing out that with the budget that the government has for the sector will not make a significant impact on it.
“Making health insurance compulsory will definitely make a huge difference in the industry,” he said.
Karunwi spoke at training on advanced dental restoration topics organised by Tipton Training and Dental Solutions, which took place at Schubbs Dental Clinics in Lagos on Thursday, 10th October.
Karunwi said that the Nigerian dental industry was growing with huge potentials, noting that what the country really needed was policies that would enhance the growth of the industry.
“This is why I believe strongly that making health insurance compulsory is what will inject a lot of funds into the healthcare system,” Karunwi said. “If every Nigerian registered has health insurance, that obviously will give critical mass for improvement of dentistry in Nigeria.”
In the 2020 budget proposals presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday by President Muhammadu Buhari, the government plans to spend N44.50 billion in 2020 on Basic Health Care, representing a 13.12 percent decline from N51.22 billion in 2020.
Dental Solution Limited is a full-service, solution provider for the entire field of dentistry, delivering training across all specialisations.
During the training, participants saw demonstrations of challenging cases and learned advanced tips and tricks for preserving and restoring teeth.
Paul Tipton, director of Tipton Training, United Kingdom-based and a specialist in prosthodontics restorative and cosmetic dentistry, said that Tipton training had been done in Ireland, Scotland , Egypt, UK, India and now in Nigeria. According to him this was the first time was taking place in West Africa and Nigeria was the first to get this opportunity.
“The The course is to improve the techniques of dentist worldwide,” Tipton said, and noted that the standard of dentistry in most school around the world is quite poor compare to the level of dentistry that is achievable.
Tipton said that what he was trying to do was to train dentists who went to dentistry school to use those techniques and operate so that they can do much more better dentistry on their patients.
“It will improve the patient’s life, the life of the dentist as well as showing them how to do more advanced techniques and better techniques.
“Nigeria dentist will really benefit our coming over here; it is an opportunity to help develop the profession here in Nigeria,” he said.
Also speaking to the lecturers for the training, Adam Toft, a dentist from Sheffield UK, said that the training would develop dentists’ skills, noting that a lot of steps to take were not just necessarily investing in the new equipment but that the basis of good dentistry was the knowledge and understanding.
“In this training we have a lot of time to discuss about teeth closure, how the jaw works and we can integrate it into our restoration and attribute it to patients to ensure damage restoration and it will last longer. The more training the better life and it a long part of the training,” said Toft.
Olusesan Popoola, also a dentist said that the training will support them to get more understanding and improve better in skills and be a more factual dentist, which will have confidence treating their patients.
Ashish Rayarel, a dentist, Manchester Uk who spoke on oral hygiene said it is very important one have a good oral hygiene stating that how clean is clean enough for your mouth.
“It is not just brushing the teeth but also in between and keeping the tongue clean. Hygiene is very necessary,” he said.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
