UI Don Advocates Formalization of Oral Health Promotion Programmes in Schools Across the Country

A Professor of Community Dentistry at the University of Ibadan, Professor Folake Barakat Lawal has advocated the formalization of oral health promotion programmes in schools across the country, calling for the establishment of at least one school-based dental clinic in each Local Government Area.

She made the advocacy while delivering the 607th Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ibadan on behalf of the Faculty of Dentistry.

The title of the lecture was “From Schools to Glocal Communities: Impacting the Oral and General Health of Generations.”

Professor Lawal stated that poor knowledge of oral health, attitude and practices among pupils and students have been identified as factors affecting their oral health status and quality of life.

She disclosed that instituted strategies have resulted in measurable improvements in oral health status and quality of life of pupils and students in various oral health promotion programmes in schools. 

Therefore, she called for the creation of health clubs in schools which according to her, will form the pool for peer trainers in oral health promotion. 

The Inaugural Lecturer said oral health is a mirror to the state of general health of an individual, adding that oral diseases often herald underlying systematic diseases such as the link between periodontal diseases and hypertension, cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, dementia and respiratory diseases.

She said that there is need to explore the intersection between perceived poor oral health status and general health, stating that individuals who perceive poor general health are more likely to present with higher levels of oral health problems.

The Don stated that some adolescents perceive oral health as important and as integral to general health while others believe that oral health is inconsequential.

She identified alternative interventions required in the form of well-regulated task shifting, where oral health promotional activities in the community are ceded to trained staff working in primary health care centers across the country and paired to mother institutions that they refer patients to.

The Professor of Community Dentistry said that oral health care should be integrated into primary healthcare services, stating that primary healthcare workers can be used to bridge the gap in unmet oral health needs by incorporating oral healthcare into their work, with supervision from dental public health practitioners in their catchment zones.

She also recommended that the curriculum for the training of teachers should be revised to include basic oral health education while self-oral healthcare information should be made readily available through electronic platforms, mass media and social media.

Professor Lawal stated that the prevalence of oral diseases and a very poor awareness of dental treatments to ameliorate complications such as use of dental implants have severe impacts on the quality of life of pupils, students, adults and the elderly.

She, therefore, advised that the audio-visual aids and videos that have been developed should be made widely available for oral health promotion across the country adding that the use of the videos will help in dispelling myths and misconceptions while the audio-visual materials will boost oral health education. 

Given the number of underserviced areas, the lecturer called on government to provide mobile dental care services to cater for these areas and recommended that dental patient-reported outcomes and other subjective assessment tools should be used to complement clinical care of dental patients. 

The Don urged the federal government to consider building a larger and more comprehensive dental center for the University College Hospital, Ibadan to fulfill the mandate of research, training and service provision to the teeming population requiring tertiary dental care services, considering the number of referred cases from primary and secondary facilities.

The Inaugural Lecture was the fourth in the series for the 2024/2025 academic session.