KARACHI - The spread of fatal diseases will remain the biggest problem and a question mark on the performance of the health authorities unless checks are kept on their (diseases) major sources.
It was observed at the last day of the three-day 10th International and 30th National Dental Congress, organised by the Pakistan Dental Association (PDA) at Expo Centre.
Dentists, while expressing their views on topic entitled “Preventive Dentistry”, said the health authorities were reluctant to address the real problems.
The objective of the congress was to acquaint modern research, and information in dentistry carried out across the world.
The speakers said that quack dentists were not equipped to treat patients since they used unclean and un-sterilised tools.
“We often receive many dental cases that had been spoiled by such street dentists. These people are the cause of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C”, they said. The health experts acknowledged that treatment of dental diseases cost the people a considerable amount of money. “This was the reason that they used to see quacks and street dentists.”
The mouth is the gateway of all intakes and the entire body’s health is interlinked with oral health, they noted. The session was chaired by Dr Inayatullah Padhyar.
Later, PDA Patron Mahmood Shah told the media that there were 13,000 qualified dentists in the country, while the number of quack dentists also stood the same.
He observed that in rural areas, one barely found qualified dentists, while in big cities, dentists could be found easily. Citing an example, he said if there was one dentist for 4,000 people in Karachi, there was a dentist for 100,000 people in any rural area.
Criticising the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), Shah said the council had not taken any pragmatic step to curb the menace of quack dentistry, adding it came up with very implausible argument that “there was nothing to take action against quacks in law”.
He further said that the council could take action against qualified doctors in accordance with the law.
To a question, he said that Karachi and Sindh were top on the list where illegal practice of dentist quackery had become a lucrative business.
As many as 3,000 local and foreign delegates visited the congress, while 182 stalls were displayed in it.
The internationally-recognised prominent speakers from all fields of dentistry were invited to the county, while there were more than 80 speakers in total. Prof Ayyaz Ali Khan gave presentation on “Understanding the Importance of Prevention through New Era, Prof Dr Amynah Tariq on “Osteoporosis Screening – Role of Dental surgeons”, Dr Syed Akhtar Hussain Bokhari on “Influence of Periodontal Diseases on Systemic Inflammatory Mediators”, Dr Ambrina Qureshi on “New Curriculum Framework for Preventive Dentistry in Pakistan”, Dr Sobia Bilal on “Preventing Disability through promotion of Health-Related Quality of Life”, Dr Afshan Khan on “Review of Economic Evaluations of Dental Caries Prevention Programms” and Dr Kefi Iqbal on “Performance of Glass Ionomer Cement in Preventive Dentistry Based on Variation in Powder/Liquid Ratio”.