SUBSCRIBE TO OUR BLOGCan Mobile Dental Care Transform the Face of Health Service Delivery to South Africa in 21st Century?
There is a solution for every puzzle or problem and creativity in conjunction with persistence will get you there. People from past generations have worked on complex issues to arrive at complex solutions and universal dental health care is also achievable with the use of just and non- partisan political influence. Humans have always successfully tried and found solution to most every problem. It is the same for the dental health in the South African region. When it comes to changes in the environment and health, there is a special need of long term planning for the future and the human survival. First the fundamental issues preventing minimum dental healthcare for the masses must be addressed to achieve universal solution and then it comes down to delivering dental health care strategies. The process of developing this solution can be a sizeable transformation which would be positive and effective. The problem could be solved with the mobile dental trailers, dentists, assistants, hygienists and senior graduating dental students who will raise the level of dentistry in their respective regions. This would be for sure the most significant first step in delivering dental health care in South Africa.
According to many visions and principles this is a great idea which should be supported by governments, health organizations and global support organizations such as the appropriate United Nations agencies. This way, the underserved population would have access to the general interventions and the percentage of dental interventions would be increased until it becomes a right of every global citizen to have the right to complete dental treatment.
Clinical support services
The support services are more closely aligned to deliver direct patient care and they are listed as clinical support services. But, in the South Africa region the dental health care could be delivered simply by well Equipped mobile dental clinics and experienced dental professionals. This project would also involve pharmaceutical services as well as imagining services in order to meet the expectations of providing every major dental procedure as is available in the metropolitan areas. These support centers are crucial for the effective and efficient delivery of dental care to the population residing in their rural or underserved region. They would find the correspondent dental workers who are an integral part of the dental team at the local level. All support services would collaborate with other function services just to provide better dental care throughout the communities by brining Self Contained mobile dental trailers.
However, the causes of poor oral health care in South Africa are probably multifactorial, but there is a window of opportunity or just serendipity to change this situation.
The Dental Professional Board in South Africa is constantly trained and educated about the dental situation in this area. They are also thinking about mobile dental care as a good choice and also it is economically beneficial. The idea could be realized by purchasing several mobile dental clinics and invest in good equipment. Later, the mobile dental trailers could have access to the main areas in this region. They could deliver general dental care, from scaling and polishing, to oral surgery interventions and prosthetics procedures.
The mobile dental trailer could have a special imaging system for taking x-rays for specific interventions. At the very first time, there could be a small number of dental trailers which will be located in one town just for several weeks in order to deliver more dental care to the people who live there. Later, when the project turns out to be successful, the health organization could purchase more mobile dental vans to expand the project and deliver dental care to the whole region. This is a good option because the investment is incremental and is definitely lower than building fixed dental clinics and hospitals with all the needed infrastructure including facilities. This is an economical way to obtain good dental care and at the same time dentists could educate patients about how to maintain their oral health and also train recent graduates from the dental colleges.
The dental team should be well trained and educated to know how to work & communicate with the local population and explain their options and deliver dental care with high standards.
Summary
There is a positive outcome from this initiative so the mobile dental trailers could absolutely transform the face of dental health in South African region. The health organizations just have to set an exceptional framework and take the right actions. This way the dental status of this population would be increased and the people would also be content, happy and mentally competent. The project would establish collaboration with the dental team and prepare them to improve the quality of dental services as well as the patient safety.
When the budget is used just to deliver health care to everyone, then the outcome would exceed expectations. In the final phases of the project, the manager should think about developing a dental chain services and to make the dental health affordable to every person.
Mobile dental vans would deliver affordable and high-quality dental healthcare to the people in their community. All the potential and available resources would be used in order to complete the main goal of delivering high-quality dental care. This way the people would be healthier and some of the dental, physical health and mental diseases would be prevented. This project puts the people at the center of the health and also at the healthcare system.
