- Dean’s Message
- Expressions Summer 2023
Access to Oral Healthcare
Faculty Plays a Key Role in Strengthening the Dental Workforce
There is a renewed discussion about access to oral healthcare in Hong Kong. Access to healthcare is generally defined as a timely use of personal health services to achieve the best possible health outcomes. Key elements are an adequate workforce of qualified providers, timeliness in the provision of healthcare, continuous healthcare, and affordability. Arguably, the main issues limiting access to oral healthcare in Hong Kong are a lack of dentists and affordability.
With 34 registered dentists in Hong Kong per 100,000 people, Hong Kong has more dentists than most Provinces in Mainland China, but lags behind other developed economies, e.g., an average of 61 dentists per 100,000 people in member counties of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The then Food and Health Bureau’s latest Healthcare Manpower Projection reported only a minor shortage of dentists in Hong Kong until 2040. One, however, now realizes that the need for dentists may have been underestimated and in addition, more dental surgery assistants and dental hygienists are needed to further improve access to oral healthcare. Already in 2018, the Faculty, which educates 4 out of 5 newly registered dentists in Hong Kong, proposed to double the number of BDS students to further strengthen the workforce.
With limited publicly funded oral healthcare and dental insurance coverage, most oral healthcare in Hong Kong is paid for out-of-pocket. The out-of-pocket costs put even basic oral healthcare out of reach for many people. For example, a non-surgical treatment of mild to moderate periodontitis, which affects more than half of the adults in Hong Kong, is equivalent to what a household with a median income spends for food per month.
As the Faculty will play a key role in the internship, we look forward to working with the various stakeholders to ensure that the internship provides a valuable learning experience for our BDS graduates and dovetails with our undergraduate and postgraduate curricula.
To further enhance the provision of publicly funded oral healthcare, among others, the Health Bureau has proposed to amend the Dentists Registration Ordinance. The legislative amendment proposal provides a pathway for admission of non-locally trained dentists who have passed the licensing examination to the public sector and introduces an internship for the Faculty’s BDS graduates in the Department of Health, Hospital Authority, and other institutions. Furthermore, the initiatives outlined in the Health Bureau’s Primary Healthcare Blueprint and the recently established Working Group on Oral Health and Dental Care hold promise to improve access to oral healthcare.
As the Faculty will play a key role in the internship, we look forward to working with the various stakeholders to ensure that the internship provides a valuable learning experience for our BDS graduates and dovetails with our undergraduate and postgraduate curricula.
Professor Thomas Flemmig
Kingboard Professor in Advanced Dentistry
Dean of HKU Faculty of Dentistry