Kenya Dental Association / FILEThe Kenya Dental Association (KDA) has raised concern over staffing shortages in dental clinics, centres and hospitals, warning that the gaps are exposing Kenyans to unqualified people masquerading as dentists.
The association said a number of public and private dental facilities do not have qualified dentists providing oral healthcare services, creating room for untrained practitioners to offer treatment to unsuspecting patients.
“It has come to our attention that a number of dental clinics, centres and hospitals, both public and private facilities, are short-staffed and do not have dentists providing oral healthcare services to Kenyans,” KDA said.
The association warned that the use of unqualified and untrained people to provide dental services could have serious consequences for patients, including unnecessary pain, additional treatment costs and loss of public confidence in healthcare services.
“The unfortunate decision to have unqualified and untrained persons impersonating and masquerading as dentists/doctors not only harms public trust in the delivery of quality healthcare but promotes quackery, unimaginable pain and high costs of care in pursuit of appropriate treatment,” it said.
KDA called on members of the public, clinic and hospital owners and county governments to ensure that only qualified and licensed professionals provide oral healthcare services.
“Only licensed and qualified persons ought to provide oral healthcare services and as per the clinicians' scopes of practice and professional licensure,” the association said.
The association also cautioned non-dentists against advertising general and specialist dentistry services that fall outside their professional training and competence.
“Advertising that persons can provide general and specialist dentistry by non-dentists beyond training and competence is a breach of the law,” KDA said.
It urged Kenyans to verify the qualifications of dental practitioners and the registration status of facilities before seeking treatment.
The association said information on dentists' qualifications and facility registration is available through the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) public registers.
KDA further encouraged patients to report people suspected of impersonating qualified dentists, as well as cases of dental fraud, malpractice, negligence and other forms of professional misconduct.
“The public is further advised to consider taking legal action against any person impersonating/masquerading as a qualified dentist and/or persons employing unqualified persons and quacks to provide oral healthcare services,” it said.
Complaints can be reported to KDA through [email protected] or to the KMPDC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee through [email protected].
KDA said it would continue promoting best practices in dentistry and protecting the public from substandard care.
“All Kenyans deserve quality and safe dentistry and not exploitation by persons masquerading to be trained doctors out to cash in from underregulation of the dentistry sector,” the association said.
