Dental surgeons have committed to extend services to children with mental disabilities.

This was agreed on during the second International Oral Health Conference in Nyamata, Eastern Province, organised by Rwanda Dental Surgeons Association in partnership with the Ministry of Health.

The conference, under the theme "Access to oral health care for children with mental disability,” focused on mechanisms to promote oral health of Rwandans, to collaborate with the Ministry of Health to set up a harmonised oral health policy to manage children with mental disabilities.

Speaking to journalists at the conference, yesterday, Dr Immaculee Kamanzi, the chairperson of Rwanda Dental Surgeons Association, said the main aim of turning focus on children with mental disabilities is because they always miss out on such treatment due to different complications that are associated with them.

"The aim of the conference is to facilitate easy access to oral health for children. We chose to focus on children with mental disabilities because it is a different case to deal with them. They can’t explain what they are suffering from, don’t easily understand what you are telling them and so on. So, we want to make treatment easy for them,” she said.

Kamanzi said dentists will make outreaches to hospitals, schools and other places around the country offering oral treatment to such children under Mutuelle de Santé health insurance cover.

Rwanda has 3,127 children registered with mental disabilities, the ministry says.

The conference brought together experts from Belgium, France, DR Congo, Ivory Coast, the Netherlands, among others, who shared experiences and ways to handle cases of mentally-disabled children when administering treatment to them.

Alvela Mukabaramba, the state minister in charge of community development and social affairs, emphasised the importance of oral health.

"The issue of oral health is an important one. We need to put effort toward it. We need to sensitise many Rwandans about oral health,” the minister said.

She also expressed gratitude toward the dental surgeons for the initiative and pledged the ministry’s support.Rwanda still faces a number of challenges in addressing dental problems.

The key challenges include lack of an oral health policy, low levels of understanding of oral health issues among the public and a small number of qualified professionals.

In Rwanda, there are only 43 dental surgeons, only 12 of these are nationals and the rest are expatriates.

The Director General of Clinical Services at the Ministry of Health, Dr Theophile Dushime, said a dental school has been put in place at the University of Rwanda to respond to the problem of inadequate dental surgeons.

It is hoped that in a period of two years, the dental school will have produced more 14 surgeons.

Among other solutions is the sensitisation of the public about oral health through outreaches to ensure better understanding of oral health.

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