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Oral health is critical to people’s overall health, but a dire shortage of oral health practitioners in the public health sector means that many people are not getting the oral healthcare services they need. Some dental practitioners such as Dr Bulela Vava says these chronic shortages, especially in provinces like the Eastern Cape, force dentists in the public health system to operate as “dental butcheries as opposed to oral healthcare centres”.Vava is the founder and national chairperson of the Public Oral Health Forum. Oral healthcare is integrated into the primary health care package provided in the public health sector. As the rural and poor province that it is, the focus of the Eastern Cape should be on prevention, but it does not have more than 50 oral hygienists, says Vava. The Eastern Cape health sector is under immense pressure when it comes to oral and dental healthcare.

South africaUniversity of the western capeWestern capeBulela vavaGcobisa magwalaPopo majaYusuf osmanSizwe kupeloEastern cape department of healthPublic oral health forumHealth departmentNational health insuranceHealth professions council of south africaEastern capePublic oral healthEastern cape vava