High time for separate Dental Directorate in Manipur

Dr Thoiba *

The people of Manipur have been the most neglected in terms of oral health maintenance due to financial constraint and lack of education. Studies have been conducted to evaluate the extent of dental diseases in various parts of India, yet Manipur has been an exception in terms of prevalence, incidence of dental diseases.

Oral health problems arise mainly as a result of two oral diseases: dental caries and periodontal disease. Virtually every children and adult has experienced either dental caries or periodontal disease or both. Most of the oral diseases are preventable, but still they caused suffering to millions of individuals worldwide.

Moreover, if a disease can be prevented or intercepted at an early stage, it will minimize the impact on the cost and methods of treatment. Research over the years had shown that caries and periodontal disease are preventable and controllable but unfortunately no proper channels have been taken to control these oral diseases.

The govt of Manipur/ central govt have not so far taken proper initiatives for controlling or preventing oral diseases.

Presently dental surgeon to population ratio in India is about 1:10000 but in Manipur the dental surgeon population is very much less and it is put somewhere around 1:30000.

Out of total 96 sanctioned posts of dental surgeon in Manipur, only 81 posts have been filled which means that a total of 11(eleven) posts have been lying vacant and these aren’t sufficient to distribute to existing PHCs.

There are about 16 Grade III dental surgeons and 1 post of grade II dental surgeon. The Govt dental surgeons couldn’t be distributed uniformly among the PHCs and there is need for more dental surgeons to cover up the remaining PHCs.

As of now there are around 300 dental surgeons registered under Manipur State Dental Council and many more are coming up. To give a proper opportunity and service route a proper dental Directorate is necessary.

Every year around 50 dental surgeons are graduating. So to tackle the in-conveniences and unemployment problems, a Dental Directorate is necessary. Most of dental surgeons are working in private setup. As the socio-economic condition of the local people are not in favourable condition, most of the people could not afford accessibility to private clinics. So to provide affordable, accessible dental health care, there is a need for separate Dental Directorate for providing dental health services.

Many dental clinics and labs are mushrooming and there are many unregistered private dental clinics throughout the State. There is a requirement to check the quantity and quality of treatment these clinics provide.

It has been to the knowledge that Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have separate dental directorate which are completely independent from the State’s Health Directorate which make them very convenient while implementing any dental programme and policies. Govt of Manipur has created a separate directorate for AYUSH doctors which are less than 30 in number which is far less in number in comparison with dental surgeons.

So it is quite reasonable for implementing a separate dental directorate. There are no AYUSH directorate in other North eastern States. The previous dental nodal officer wasn’t functioning properly and there is no dental nodal officer as of now. The funds sanctioned by the Central Govt hasn’t been utilised and had lapsed.

16 dental chairs and 4 dental chairs have been installed in CHCs and district hospitals respectively but without proper consumables and non-consumables infrastructure and hence patient cannot be treated properly.

Dental chairs alone cannot supply the necessary infrastructure for the dental surgeons, the consumable and non-consumables are must and this is like a soldier going to war without bullet his gun and a student going to exam without ink in his pen.

The dental surgeons at hospitals with limited instruments and infrastructure are being handicapped and in due course of time, their practices are compromised and the irony is that those hospitals having sufficient infrastructure, the dental surgeons aren’t providing proper dental services to the people. So at the end the one who suffers are only the patients and it needs to be scrutinised properly with help of separate dental directorate.

Considering the above factors the Govt of Manipur should implement a separate dental directorate for the oral health welfare of people at earnest.