By John Semakula and Jimmy Siyasa
“Some tortures are physical and some are mental, but the one that is both is dental.” That phrase is attributed to the late Frederic Nash, an American poet.
Aziz Wamula, a third-year student of Mass Communication at the Uganda Christian University, relates intimately with Nash’s saying. The mental and physical torture emanating as he woke up one morning could not allow the 23-year-old any more time at home.
He went to the Uganda Christian University’s (UCU) Allan Galpin Clinic in Mukono for medical assistance. Wamula needed an urgent root canal treatment to ward off the constant pain. When he arrived at the medical facility, he hoped the pain he was undergoing would soon be dealt with. But he was wrong. The clinic did not offer the service he needed. Therefore, he was referred to Mengo Hospital, 32km (19.8 miles) away. There his woes continued as Wamula did not have the money that the hospital needed to treat him.
He, therefore, resorted to a dental facility about 5km (3 miles) from the university, in Seeta.
“At the clinic, I neared the luck of having the root canal treatment at sh200,000 (about $54),” he recollected. The process began but before it was completed, the clinic encountered a power blackout with no backup generator. Wamula says the pain he underwent when the power was off forced him to ask the dentist to switch from his desired root canal process to extracting the tooth. For this switch, he got a refund of sh50,000 (about $13.5) and left with one less tooth.
A deeper pocket eased the pain undergone by a fourth-year Law student at UCU, who preferred anonymity. She needed special dental treatment after her teeth got out of position. To correct the misalignment, the student needed to buy a brace and a retainer. When she inquired, she was told it would cost sh10m (about $2,700). The brace was to cost sh4m and retainer sh6m. The lawyer-to-be paid for the service, which was conducted at one of the dental facilities in Kampala. She now wears a metallic arc belting her ivory white teeth.
The amount that Okiror spent on realigning her teeth could pay her tuition fees for a full year at the university. Despite the fact that the service left her wallet dry, she is proud that her teeth are slowly getting back to their right and original alignment.
Currently, the UCU’s Allan Galpin Clinic only offers dental extraction services within the sh70,000 ($19.02) that students pay for medical services every semester at the university.
The few students who have medical insurance are able to avoid the single option of losing a tooth and receive professional dental services. Esther Tusiime, a third-year student of journalism at UCU, is one of them. When Tusiime, like Wamula, developed a sudden excruciating pain in her gums, her mother’s health insurance bailed her out.
“The pain was so much that I had spent several sleepless nights before finally seeking medical treatment,” she recalled. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown that included school closings, Tusiime was home with her parents; they took her for specialised treatment at Mawano Dental Clinic in Kampala.
“The dentist discovered that I had a tooth that was hidden in the gum and growing in the wrong direction, hence causing the pain,” she said of the diagnosis that included an X-ray. For the technical analysis and stitching of the gum, Tusiime paid sh600,000 (about $163) off her insurance.
A majority of the Ugandan population, including UCU community members, do not have health insurance. This means that they may suffer with untreated dental diseases and permanent defects from bad breath to missing teeth and mouth pain. Some students narrate their experiences of having to sit next to a classmate who suffers from halitosis (bad breath).
The lack of funds to resolve dental issues is compounded with the low dentist-to-patient ratio in the country. According to the Uganda Dental Association, there is one dentist for every 142,000 Ugandans.
Dr. James Magara, the Dean of the Faculty of the UCU School of Dentistry, said running a dental facility in Uganda is expensive because most of the equipment used and much of the sealants and fluoride are imported.
Dr. Zachariah Muddu, from the Allan Galpin Clinic, said UCU finds it fit to uproot the teeth because the standard dentist charge for the procedure, from within or without, is sh50,000 (about $13.6) – more than students can afford. Any student with the need for anything beyond extraction is directed to any of UCU’s referral hospitals.
“When it comes to root canal-filling of the teeth, bills are picked up by the patient. Anything that involves elective measures calls for personal expenditure,” Muddu explained.
During 2020, the university created the UCU School of Dentistry and is currently equipping its training laboratories. It is hoped that this move could give birth to a dental clinic that can offer cheaper treatment services to members of the UCU community.
+++++
For more of these stories and experiences by and about Uganda Christian University (UCU) staff, students and graduates, visit https://www.ugandapartners.org. If you would like to support UCU, including the School of Dentistry, contact Mark Bartels, Executive Director, UCU Partners, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org or go to https://www.ugandapartners.org/donate/