Published online Sep 16, 2014. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v2.i9.439
Revised: June 27, 2014
Accepted: July 25, 2014
Published online: September 16, 2014
AIM: To study a service model that enables a clinic to be open to all members of the community, irrespective of their ability to pay.
METHODS: Sampling methodology was used to gather information in two phases, with the city of Indore as the target region. In the first phase, dental professionals were surveyed to gather the cost of the facility, land and equipment and the cost of sustaining the practice. In the second phase, the residents of Indore were surveyed to collect information regarding their oral health problems and their expenditure for the same. Assessing the current situation, the questions to answer are related to the issues of dental health care access problems and the resources required, human and financial.
RESULTS: (1) People younger than 20 years of age form a large proportion (43%) of the population of the city and also a large proportion (54%) of people who visit dental clinics; (2) Dental caries are commonly found in the population younger than 20 years of age and mobile teeth in those older than 50 years of age; (3) Dental caries and mobile teeth are almost equally found in people of the age group 20-50 years old; (4) A significantly large proportion of those older than 50 years old have had all their teeth extracted; and (5) A significantly large proportion of the 20-30 years of age group has had no teeth extracted.
CONCLUSION: The model which we propose works well for low income patients; however, it places a lot of extra burden on the higher income group. A lot of effort can be put into generating revenue from other sources, including events and donations.
Core tip: One of the primary reasons for the challenges faced by dental health care in a developing country like India is that when primary health care systems were being implemented, dental health care was not included. Also, although expenditure on health care systems form a significant percentage of the gross domestic product (nearly 5%), it is very small compared to the total population of the country. On top of that, the amount of money spent on dental health care is less compared to some other nations. This has left dental health care in India far behind other health services. The following are some of the challenges faced by dental health care in India: (1) expensive treatment; (2) imbalanced distribution of clinics; (3) unawareness; (4) skewed population to dentist ratio; and (5) changing disease pattern and treatment needs. People in developing regions suffer from different types of dental diseases, which are curable with treatment but not affordable by most people. In this study, a service model was developed that enables a clinic to be open to all members of the community, irrespective of their ability to pay.