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National and county governments have been urged to prioritize oral health and increase budgetary allocations to its programmes.

Oral Health Practitioners in Kenya President Alex Langat (pictured) said this could also help the country meet its goal of help the Universal Health Coverage.

The call comes as oral health practitioners decried little support from the two levels of government despite the sub-sector having millions of patients seeking services.

Speaking yesterday,  Langat pointed out that they are greatly underfunded, there by affecting staffing and equipping of its departments. 

“The demand for oral health is very high unfortunately oral health services departments are understaffed and poorly equipped,” he said.

He observed that the situation had left most patients suffering as others were forced to lose their teeth due to lack of the required materials for conserving them at the health centres.