Addressing the Crisis of Pediatric Dental Care in Pakistan
Call for Action-Pediatric Oral Health Burden
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62807/jowach.v2i1.2025.3-5Keywords:
Pediatric Dentistry, Dental caries, Oral Health Policy, Preventive Care, Health DisparitiesAbstract
Abstract
Dental caries remains one of the most prevalent yet neglected childhood health challenges in Pakistan, affecting over 60% of children due to poor oral hygiene, limited access to care, and a critical shortage of pediatric dental specialists. Early childhood caries (ECC) not only causes pain and infection but also impairs nutrition, speech development, and quality of life, with long-term consequences for educational and economic outcomes. Despite global evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of preventive programs (e.g., fluoride varnishes, school-based screenings), Pakistan’s oral health system remains ill-equipped to address this crisis, with fewer than 0.5 pedodontists per 100,000 children and stark urban-rural disparities. General dentists, who comprise the majority of the workforce, often lack specialized training in child behavior management or advanced sedation techniques, leading to delayed treatment and preventable complications. This letter highlights the urgent need for policy reforms, including integrating pediatric dentistry into undergraduate dental curricula, expanding postgraduate training programs, incentivizing rural service through scholarships and infrastructure investments, and launching national preventive campaigns modeled after successful initiatives like Scotland’s Childsmile and Thailand’s school-based fluoride programs. Without immediate action, Pakistan’s pediatric caries epidemic will continue to exacerbate health inequities and strain the healthcare system. Policymakers, educators, and professional associations must collaborate to prioritize children’s oral health as a national public health imperative.
Keywords: Pediatric dentistry, dental caries, oral health policy, preventive care, health disparities.
References
Mirza AJ, Maaz AJ, Merwah B, Siddiqui AA. Is the Current Knowledge of Treating Caries Being Implemented in Saudi Arabia? Int J Dent Sci & Res, 2016; 4(5): 85-89.
Siddiqui AA, Alshammary F, Mulla M, Al Zubaidi SM, Afroze E, Amin J, Amin S, Shaikh S, Madfa AA, Alam MK. Prevalence of dental caries in Pakistan: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Oral Health, 2021; 21:450
Zahra N, Asad SR, Malaika K, Asad SA, Syed Aswad SA, Qurat-ul-Ain S. Addressing Challenges of Dental Problems in Pakistan: A Comprehensive Review, Int J Biomed Research, 2024; 3(1): DOI:10.31579/2834-5029/042
Tayaba N K. Focus on pediatric dentistry in Pakistan still low available at: https://pk.dental-tribune.com/ accessed on Feb3,2025
Naidoo S, Myburgh N. Nutrition, oral health and the young child. Matern Child Nutr. 2007 3(4):312-21. doi: 10.1111/j.1740-8709.2007.00115.x.
Porritt J, Marshman Z, Rodd HD. Understanding children’s dental anxiety and psychological approaches to its reduction. Int J Paediatric Dent, 2012; 22: 397–405
Mourad MS, Splieth C, Almasri A, Schmoeckel J. Potential for nitrous oxide sedation in pedodontics practice to reduce the need for dental general anesthesia. Quintessence Int.202;20;53(7):598-606. doi: 10.3290/j.qi.b3044863.
Park S, Kim J, Jongsoo K, Lee J, Han M, Shin J. Trends of conscious sedation in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the Dankook University Dental Hospital for 11. J Dent Anesth Pain Med 2023;23(5):265-271❚https://doi.org/10.17245/jdapm.2023.23.5.2
Farhan Raza Khan, Sadia Mahmud, Munawar Rahman. The Need of Paed Dentistry Specialists in Pakistan. J CPSP, 2013; 23 (4): 305-307
Rubab J, Khan Z, Kibria, Ahmad F. Dental caries and its determinants among children with special health care needs in district Karachi, Pakistan. Khyber Med Uni J, 2020; 12(1):19-24, doi:10.35845/kmuj.2020.19726.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Prof. Asaad Javaid Mirza (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The Journal of Women and Child Health (JoWaCH) adheres to the CC BY 4.0 license, which is a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For comprehensive information, we kindly request that you refer to the full license legal code. JoWaCH employs a non-exclusive license agreement for the purpose of open-access publication. In the context of open access publishing, the authors maintain the copyright of their work while also granting the journal the rights to publish and distribute it, while retaining the primary academic use rights. This practice facilitates the optimal use and dissemination of the work, while also guaranteeing proper attribution to the original source. The handling of manuscript content shall be conducted with confidentiality, with the exception of cases involving review processes and investigations related to potential misconduct, plagiarism, and duplicate/redundant or overlapping publications, in accordance with the guidelines provided by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) COPE Guidelines.
JoWaCH is prohibited from disseminating content derived from previously published scientific work without obtaining proper authorization. Obtaining permission from the copyright holder, who may be either the author(s) or the publisher, is necessary in cases where the copyright holder is the publisher, for any work you want to use.
While it is acceptable to use a small amount of a work, obtaining permission from the copyright owners is necessary for a significant extraction.
The use of unmodified or little modified tables, graphs, and artworks (whether they are the user's own work previously published elsewhere or created by another copyright holder) necessitates obtaining permission.
Tables, graphs, charts, and artworks that have been fully redesigned and rebuilt, and include proper reference of the source, do not need obtaining permission.
JoWaCH facilitates unrestricted access to journal material for readers, necessitating the imposition of membership fees. The journal operates on a self-sustaining financial model and does not rely on support from other sources. The procedure of publishing is contingent only upon the financial resources of the publisher. The readers have unrestricted access to the information on the journal website.
