Integrating a Primary Oral Health Care Approach in the Dental Curriculum: A Tanzanian Experience

This paper is based on a conference presentation made during the inauguration of the Faculty of Dentistry, Kuwait University, as a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Primary Oral Health Care (POHC) on November 27-28, 2012. The aim of this paper is to review how the POHC approach has been integrated into the dental curriculum, sharing the Tanzanian experience as a case presentation from a developing country. The burden of oral diseases worldwide is high, and the current oral health workforce is inadequate to meet the challenges. Curative oral health care is very costly and not accessible to the poor and minorities. To tackle the problem, the POHC approach rooted in primary health care that emphasizes equity, community involvement, prevention, appropriate technology and a multi-sectorial approach was developed and has been operating for more than 3 decades now. Execution of a comprehensive POHC requires a trained oral health workforce mix with essential competencies. For this case study, a literature search was done using the search engines subscribed to by the library of Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, including PubMed, Cochrane, ScienceDirect and Scopus, Wiley-Blackwell Interscience, Sage and the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) that gives access to Scirus and Google Scholar. Challenges are discussed with an emphasis more on addressing the common risk factors and determinants of oral health. Integration of the POHC approach in the dental curriculum for training a competent workforce is crucial in attaining better oral health. Resources are still a major challenge, and the impact of the POHC approach in the curriculum is yet to be evaluated.