In a bid to tackle the absence of adequate oral health facilities, Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health has unveiled a plan to establish a dental hospital in each of the country’s 77 provinces. Dr Opas Kankawinpong, the ministry’s permanent secretary, underscored the urgent need for increased dental care coverage during a seminar, highlighting that with the current number of dentists, adequate provision of dental care to the country’s 70 million strong population remains a distant goal.
“We need to ensure our citizens have access to dental services at least 140 million times per year, considering that everyone should consult a dentist twice annually. Unfortunately, right now our existing dental infrastructure can only cater to 10 million annual visits — a mere 7.1% of the total need.”
Dr Kankawinpong expressed the…
