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Lack of Facilities in Govr Hospitals, High Cost at Private Clinics

Poor dental patients bear brunt

Najmul Alam Nobin
The access of poor patients to oral treatment and dental surgery is very limited due to lack of facilities in government hospitals and high costs at private dental clinics.
They have to wait for days to get admission for surgeries in government hospitals as the number of patients is much higher than the capacity, sources said.
"We usually conduct surgery three days a week, but it is almost impossible to provide all patients with surgery facilities in due time, even if we do this seven days a week." said a doctor in the maxillofacial surgery unit at Dhaka Dental College (DDC), adding. “The number of patients, who come here for treatment, are four to five times higher than the beds available."
"Although the construction of a seven-storied building for DDC is at the final stage, its 200 beds would not be enough to ensure surgery facilities for the huge number of patients. Out of the 200 beds, one hundred will be for oral and maxillofacial surgery and the rest will be for general surgery and medicine treatment." said the hospital sources.
Work on the construction of the building began I n March 2002 and was supposed to be completed by March 2004, but the building is yet to be operational, they added.
There are only 52 beds for oral and maxillofacial surgeries in government hospitals across the country.
Of them, only three hospitals DDC. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and Suhrawardi Hospital have the facilities for surgery' that needs general anesthesia (making the patients fully senseless).
DDC has 20 beds. Suhrawardi Hospital 18 beds and the BSMMU 14 beds for maxillofacial surgeries.
Of tire 14 beds at the BSMMU, eight are paying beds.
Patients have to pay Tk 150 for a bed per day, and Tk 5000 for minor surgery and Tk 8000 for major surgery, while the cost of anesthe-
sia is 2500 at the BSSMU, sources said.
Maxillofacial surgery unit mainly deals in oral cancer, tumors, bone fractures in face, infection inside mouth and other diseases that need facial surgeries and the surgeries that cannot be done with only local anesthesia.
Orthodontics, treatment to unshaped teeth, prosthodontics, capping teeth and setting artificial teeth and conservative dentistry like root canals are provided at DDC.
Dentists say lack of awareness and poor access to treatment are the main causes for the deterioration of oral and dental diseases.
Even the MBBS doctors do not have basic idea about dentistry or oral diseases and their treatment, theyadded.
"It is very difficult to provide surgery facilities to all the patients with the existing number of beds in the hospital," said Dr Md Harun-ur-Rashid, assistant registrar of oral and maxillofacial surgery unit ofDDC.
"Due to limited access, minor oral problems of the poor people often develop into major problems like tumor turning into cancer," he added.
Dr Harun said MBBS doctors should also have basic idea about dentistry, as many dental patients go to them first, but they do not realise the severity of the patients.
The situation at the district level is very much awful as the government hospitals there can only provide the patients with the facility of tooth extraction and nothing else.
There are two dental units in Chittagong Medical College and Hospital and Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital, but these have no maxillofacial surgery facilities.
Dr Shahriar Islam, dental surgeon at the General Hospital in Barisal said, "We cannot provide better treatment or surgery to the patients as the hospital has no surgical facilities. We can only refer them to Dhaka. If they can afford, they get treatment, otherwise, they suffer.”
Dr Abul Faiz, director general of health department, said, "Our first priority is to provide the people with primary dental care, and for that we need dental technologists."
"As a poor country, we are looking for ensuring primary dental care first and then oral and maxillofacial surgery,” he added.