GASABO - Kibagabaga Hospital has acquired a new state-of-the-art dental equipment which will see the hospital offer some of the best dental care services in the country.

The digital automated Maecolux machine, which consists of a hand and foot operated dental chair and a BlueX Intra OS X-ray machine, was donated by the Belgium Technical Cooperation (BTC) and its installation was completed last week.

According to Dr. Christian Ntizimira, the Director of Kibagabaga Hospital, the dental technology is one of the latest and among the few in the country that will help the hospital deal with increasing dental cases in the city.

"Gasabo District is the biggest catchment area of the city’s population with about 60 percent of the people residing in the district. We receive over 200 patients daily and about 40 of these are dental cases,”

"We believe the new machine will reduce the pressure on the Central Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK) which has been receiving many patients with dental complications,” Dr. Ntizimira said.

He noted that the machine is complete with an X-ray machine to examine dental statuses of patients and immediately release the images unlike in the past when patients would have to go to other places to obtain scans and return for treatment later.

Dr. Ntizimira said the new technology will be followed by a second phase of installing machines which will allow dentists to carry out oral operations.

According to Evodia Mudaheranwa, the head of the Dental department, the machine operates with the highest standards of hygiene and efficiency because it uses a respirator to take out liquids from the mouth as compared to the ordinary system of patients spitting.

The machine cost over Rwf 10 million. The head of the hospital said that management contacted BTC for help after registering big numbers of dental patients.

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