Why Nigerians should visit dental clinics regularly, by Akiode

•Poor oral health linked to heart diseases, diabetes, others
•Gum disease, tooth cavity most prevalent conditions seen at Choice Dental

More reasons have been given on why Nigerians should visit dentists more often even as several studies have associated poor oral health to chronic ailments such as heart diseases and diabetes. It has also been shown that the symptoms of most diseases are visible in the oral cavity.

Why should one bother visiting a dentist? A consultant dentist at Choice Dental, Victoria Island, Lagos, Dr. Sade Akiode, told The Guardian: “I can’t even start to over emphasize the importance of visiting the dentist because the mouth is the gate way to the body. For instance let us say you are diabetic you will find out and if you have gum diseases it lead to heart diseases, pregnancy issues and so many other ailments. So basically you need to take care of your teeth because it is like using your car regularly without maintenance one day it will breakdown and then it will lead to many complications and will cost you a lot. So that is how I see dentistry.”

Akiode said if one takes good care of his or her teeth it would result to a healthy life. “If you eat properly, you will be able to digest properly because the nutrients that nourish the teeth is from the food we eat,” she added.

The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, Osun State-trained dental surgeon further explained: “So if you do not eat properly how do you think you will live a healthy life? Some people claim they do not eat meat, the reason been that it pains them each time they eat one. But if they visit the dentist the dentist will do their own part by taking proper X-ray and know what is going on with the patient and not only what the patient is complaining of. But also taking good X-ray and make them see other areas that is having problems so that in the future they can prevent the problem, then you won’t have dental issue and you will live a healthy life.”

She said Choice Dental was established in 2013 as a group practice where other dentists come together. “Putting up dental practice is quite expensive so we are hoping other dentist join and make this a bigger practice and so they won’t be having their little individual practice because for a start it could be really challenging and expensive. So for me the target is for the other dentist to join the group practice,”Akiode said.

On the common dental issues in Nigeria and those often seen in the clinic, the dentist said: “The main one I do come across is bone loss around the teeth and that is gum disease. It leads to bone loss around the teeth, the teeth becomes mobile and eventually fall off. The other one is pain in the tooth, that is when you have a hole in the tooth, the hole gets bigger and gets to the nerve and causes serve pains.”

How did the journey towards being a dentist begin? She explained: “I studied at Obafemi Awolowo University, after that I went to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) for my housemanship. After that I worked with a private firm for one year before travelling abroad. I went abroad in order to further my education in dentistry, thinking I will spend like two to three years before coming back to Nigeria. But I found out I needed to pave my way, so I heard of the California Board exams. So I went and started all over again, took the exams and started practicing, that is where a new world of dentistry opened for me. I deviated from why I went there for initially, and specialized in cosmetic dentistry.”

When and who should visit a dentist? Akiode explained: “From the time the child start to have teeth in the mouth, you have to start taking the child to a dentist and again it is recommended every six months. You don’t have to wait until you start having issues, you don’t have to wait till when the cavities start to get big before you visit the dentist because by the time you start having discomfort of pain, then it is almost a little bit late in the sense that you are going to spend a chunk of money to get the problem fixed.”

What prompted the establishment of the clinic and what sort of services it offers? The specialist in cosmetic dentistry said: “I used to work in the United Sates but my heart is always in Nigeria, though I used to come back often, I felt I was giving back much to the United States where I was not trained in the first place and since I could help them in the US so I can still come back to Nigeria and contribute my own quota to Nigerian health system.

“I think that is the main reason I came back to Nigeria and also to set up a group practice where the young dentists can also come and learn. As of services, we carry out full mouth X-ray also called intra oral. This is taken inside the mouth; it enables you to see all that is going one with the teeth, with this you can detect any problem going on with the teeth no matter how little.”

What are the challenges to the practice? Akiode explained: “There has been a lot of challenges ranging from infrastructure and each time we try to overcome one, we come across another challenge. But in that regards it requires spending a lot of money instead of using the money for growing the practice and inviting more people to join the practice we channel these money to fix in the structures such as generators, inverters and all what not. But then the other challenge is the human capital. We don’t have well trained dentist in Nigeria. Talking about the younger ones, a lot need to be put in place to make sure they have better education and basically the older ones need to come together and makes sure that happens for the younger ones.”

What are your recommendations for government on how best to improve dental health in Nigeria? Akiode said the government should focus a lot on the preventive aspect of dentistry, while they focus on the curative measures. “When we focus on the preventive measures it saves a lot much money. For example knowing the proper way to brush and the proper way to flux and application of fluoride even though some people are against it, but my years as a dentist it is recommendable,” she said.

How would you judge Nigerians attitude towards dental health? The dental surgeon said: “Nigerians attitude towards dental health is very poor, Nigerians neglect dental health that the only time they deem it fit visiting is only when the pain is serve. Condition like bone loss that leads to falling off of tooth is avoidable and again people see removal of tooth as a breakthrough to the pains but it is not. Removal of tooth is detrimental to the health of other tooth, they are meant to be together and when one is removed it leads to more tooth loss. So I urge Nigerians not to wait till the pain is severe before visiting a dentist because it saves a lot much money. So visit a dentist today and enjoy a healthy life.”