Only 17% of Africans Have Access to Oral Healthcare – WHO

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, the Acting Regional Director for Africa of the World Health Organization, has highlighted that despite progress in oral healthcare, the African region still falls behind in key oral health indicators.

Ihekweazu noted that only 17 percent of the region’s population has access to essential oral healthcare services.

He shared this in his message on Thursday while marking the 2025 World Oral Health Day, which is observed annually on March 20 to raise awareness and emphasize the importance of oral health as a crucial part of overall well-being.

He stated that in 2021, oral diseases such as dental caries, gum disease, and tooth loss affected 42 percent of the population in the WHO African Region.

“The region also has the highest number of noma cases, a rapidly progressing, non-contagious gangrenous disease of the mouth that primarily affects young children.

“If left untreated, noma has a high fatality rate, and survivors often suffer from life-long impairments, disfigurement, stigma and discrimination,” he noted.

He emphasized that to address these challenges, member states endorsed the Regional Oral Health Strategy 2016–2025, incorporating oral disease prevention into broader noncommunicable disease (NCD) control programs.

He also pointed out that the major risk factors for oral diseases include tobacco use, alcohol consumption, high sugar intake, and socioeconomic and commercial determinants.

Given their connection to other NCDs such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases, he stressed that an integrated approach to prevention and treatment is more effective.

“At the global level, the Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly in 2021 recognized oral health as a core part of the NCD agenda and Universal Health Coverage. This led to the endorsement of the Global Strategy on Oral Health, and the Global Oral Health Action Plan 2023–2030 (WHA76), which includes a monitoring framework.

“With the support of partners like Hilfsaktion Noma e.V. and the Borrow Foundation, as well as WHO Collaborating Centres, several countries in the region have taken concrete action: Lesotho, Nigeria and Sierra Leone developed oral health policy documents.

Ethiopia and Kenya trained nearly 180 primary care workers and 1200 community health workers using WHO’s online courses on noma and oral health.

“Ethiopia strengthened its noma surveillance system, identifying cases through active case-finding during onchocerciasis mass drug administration campaigns. A new capacity-building project has been launched in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia to improve access to WHO-listed dental materials, supported by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that despite these efforts, the African Region still falls behind in key oral health indicators.

“For example, only 17 per cent of the regional population has access to essential oral health care services. Progress in disease prevention is also slow, including fluoride use and sugar reduction efforts.

“The oral health workforce also remains inadequate. In 2022, the region had 56,772 oral health workers, including dentists, dental assistants and therapists (0.37 per 10 000 population) – far below the required 158 916 oral health workers (1.33 per 10 000 population) needed to meet the demand,” he said.

He stressed the urgency for countries to fast-track the implementation of the Global Oral Health Action Plan, highlighting WHO’s inaugural Global Oral Health Meeting in Thailand (November 2024) as a pivotal step.

Additionally, he underscored the importance of engaging multisectoral stakeholders, securing funding through innovative financing mechanisms—such as allocating health tax revenue to oral health—integrating oral health services into national benefits packages, and adopting a people-centred approach to implementation.