Objectives: The challenge of limited dental infrastructure in the Tanzanian highlands affects the oral health of the population and local health care workers. This present study investigated the oral health status of health care workers at the Ilembula Lutheran Hospital (ILH) in Tanzania.
Materials and Methods: As part of a cross-sectional study, 134 of a total of 184 ILH health care workers (62 women, 72 men; age 36.48 ± 0.83 years, range 19-59 years) were examined during the COVID 19 pandemic in February 2022. The examinations were conducted in the dental ward of the ILH. The decayed, missing and filled teeth index (DMF/T), the simplified oral hygiene index and information on edentulism, the Angle classification, dietary habits, and socioeconomic factors were collected.
Results: The mean DMF/T index was 3.33±0.29 (range 0-17). No plaque was found in 72 (53.73%) of those examined. 64 (47.76%) participants in the study were found to require increased prosthodontic treatment (Kennedy class III), and 22 (16.42%) participants required treatment for acute malocclusion. Oral hygiene products were used by 130 (97.01%) participants.
Discussion and Conclusion: The oral health situation of the ILH health care workers shows an increased need for restorative and prosthetic treatments compared to Western industrialised nations. The necessary therapies can only be carried out inadequately due to the limited dental infrastructure. Education about adequate oral health and the dissemination of oral health products should therefore also be promoted more strongly in health care facilities. Last but not least, health care workers in dentally underserved areas could act as mediators in the field of oral health for their own patients requiring general medical care.
Keywords: caries incidence, Tanzania, general oral health, epidemiology, health care workers
