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Published: Sunday November 22, 2009 MYT 10:25:00 AM

Malaysians must get regular dental checks


KUALA LUMPUR: Adult Malaysians should get periodical dental checks once or twice a year while children should get them once every six months for early detection of any dental problem, said Kuala Lumpur Deputy Director of Health (Dental), Dr Ahmad Bujang.

He said given the dental status situation of Malaysians now, getting periodical checks was important, as early treatment was more effective when there was early detection of problems.

“During the checks if a person does not have problems the person can get preventive dental service. “The preventive dental treatment is a proactive step to prevent dental disease, for as we all know, prevention is better than cure,” he said.

Dr Ahmad was commenting on a statement issued by the Ministry of Health’s Senior Director of the Health Division (Dental), Datuk Dr Norain Abdul Talib, on Nov 15 stating that only 6% of adults out of 28 million Malaysians used government dental services and half of that percentage being school students.

Asked if the cost of treatment was among reasons adults did not get dental treatment, Dr Ahmad said that was not a main factor.

He said people should not grumble about high cost as now they can get treatment all over the country for as low as RM1.

“In government dental services, cost is not a factor in ensuring Malaysians get dental checks as the fee charged for dental checks is only RM1 while for filling is only RM2,” he said.

Besides that there is no appointment for government dental service and it could be got at any of 615 dental clinics around the country.

People in Kuala Lumpur can get services at 14 clinics at Putrajaya, Cahaya Suria, Cheras Baru, Bandar Tun Razak, Bangsar, Petaling Bahagia, Tanglin, Jinjang, Sentul, Batu, Keramat, Setapak, Kampung Pandan and the Police Training Centre (Pulapol) in Jalan Semarak.

Through observation of adults, their awareness of dental health care may be less compared to children as the latter get more exposure to dental health care in school.

As an example, the Kuala Lumpur Dental Service had carried out a campaign of dental health care through the Trainee Teachers Dental Health programme.

Among activities in the campaign were dental checks and talks, and a workshop to prepare plans for daily education and role play related to dental health.

Through the campaign, trainee teachers are exposed to the importance of dental health and become effective agents in promoting it among students. This differed from adults who took it lightly and only go to clinic when the problem is critical.

This opinion was supported by the president of the Malaysian Private Dental Practitioners Association, Dr Jaspall Singh, who said there were people who refused to come for treatment as their problems had become critical and they began to think of the cost of treatment.

“They did not care earlier about their teeth and only see a doctor when in pain. “Maybe at that time it is too late, they think of the cost of seeing a private doctor and that to see a government doctor they have to wait for a long time,” he said.

He said if people practised periodic checks, costs and long waiting periods, can be avoided.

“Possibly in an early visit the teeth may only need to be cleaned or filled...a filling and a extraction process is cheaper around RM50 and RM60 but seeing a specialist could cost around RM400,” he said.

He did not discount the possibility that adults did not visit government clinics as they had to wait a long time for treatment as the clinics operated according to appointments.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Health’s dental health division, Dr Norinah Mustapha, said the government was striving to improve dental services especially in rural areas to attract more adults to get treatment.

“Till November 2009, 60.7% of dental officers posts based in rural areas had been filled and rest have yet to be filled. Clinics number 2,208 and these will be increased and upgraded from time to time,” she said.

Right now the ratio of government dentists to population is 1:15,243 while the ratio for population to both government and private doctors combined is 1:7,941

“This does not meet the target of the World Health Organisation whose target is one dentist for 4,000 people. However, with dentists graduating both locally and abroad the target ration will be achieved in 2018 (1:4,093),” she said

The government is trying to overcome the shortage by taking in retired dental officers or foreign dental officers on contract and also by improving the dental officers service scheme to encourage them to continue serving in government service.

Dr Norinah also said that the number of people who received government service increases by 3% each year. “We support campaigns like Media Talks over the radio and television with the cooperation of the Health Education Division of the Ministry of Health, setting up the MyHealth Portal which is a website where people can find out about their dental health; printing posters in the main three languages to be distributed through clinics and schools; and during dental health promotion campaigns,” she added. -- Bernama

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