November 15, 2009 18:00 PM

Only Six Per Cent Of Malaysians Utilise Dental Services

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 (Bernama) -- Only six per cent of Malaysia's 28 million population are utilising dental services and half of them are schoolchildren, Health Ministry Dentistry Division director Datuk Dr Norain Abu Talib said on Sunday.

She said the small percentage was mainly due to the fact that most of the people in the country would only seek dental treatment if they were having dental problems.

"They will only go to the dental clinic when they have toothache. That will be too late because by then you have to extract the tooth."

She said this after opening the 20th Convention and Science Exhibition of the Malaysian Private Dental Practitioners Association here.

She said although the country was facing a shortage of dentists, it was not the main reason why most Malaysians did not seek dental treatment.

"The main reason is that most of the people are not aware of the importance of dental health," she said.

Nevertheless, Dr Norain said the ministry had targeted to have a ratio of one dentist for every 4,000 patients by 2020 to ensourage more people to visit the dental clinics.

"Although we aim to achieve that target by 2020, with 11 institutions of higher learning offering dentistry, we are confident that the target can be achieved by 2018," she said, adding that the current ratio was one dentist for every 7,800 patients.

-- BERNAMA

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