National Oral Health Policy to boost dental care market in India

The National Oral Health Policy, brought out by the Union Health Ministry some time back, will change the market dynamics of Indian dental care market. The policy recognizes that oral health should be treated like any other serious health issue in the country. It emphasizes the importance of equity, integration, community participation, gender, prevention and promotion, and research as major tools to be used in addressing the oral disease burden in India.

The policy has been brought out to strengthen oral healthcare delivery system at all levels to render promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services; to promote support for generating evidences, innovations, and implementation of oral health policy to control and reduce the risk factors and prevent oral diseases; to encourage policy driven research, education, implementation and monitoring; and to build the capacity of service providers and also public health facilities for availability of skilled oral health care professionals and provision of essential oral health care services.

The policy is also aimed to ensure integration of oral health in all policies in multi- sectional domains including national programs under health, education, work and community related policies; to identify the Centers of Excellence at national, regional and state levels for generating research innovations and evidences to strengthen oral health program in the country; to support Centers of excellence in various activities including capacity building of service providers in the states; to ensure regular monitoring and periodic evaluation of oral health program for improving the implementation and outcome envisaged under NOHP; and to delineate roles and responsibilities at each level (national, state and regional levels) and develop achievable targets with defined oral health outcome measures at each level.

Of course, the policy is committed to regulate and monitor dental education through a robust system through appropriate body of government of India. It will help for regulation of dental clinical establishments as this policy supports the guidelines as proposed under the Clinical Establishments Act 2010 for delivering quality oral health care services in all dental establishments through standard operating procedures. The policy will advocate facilitation of dental clinic establishment particularly in rural and under-served areas.

The policy supports compliance of standard treatment guidelines by the Dental Clinical Establishments as may be issued by Central or State Government from time to time. Obviously, the National Oral Health Policy has therefore been brought out enhancing an enabling environment to all the professionals and institutes who are contributing positively in rendering good quality oral health care for the public. The policy clearly indicates the positive intent of the Government in improving and uplifting oral health care services with cost effective and wider access for all particularly those priority populations.

There cannot be two opinions about the impact of the policy as it will definitely propel the market dynamics of Indian dental care market which is undergoing a rapid evolution. The scene for the dental materials and equipment market holds promising growth prospects. Further automation too has accelerated easy access to information making patients increasingly concerned about their oral health. So, the policy will foster community participation as the focus is on preventing oral diseases. Like any other sector, the Covid-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on Indian dental care sector. A large number of dentists were out of business for a considerable time and that was a massive setback. Dentistry took a massive hit due to the nature of its work which requires direct physician-to-patient contact as most procedures involves saliva and blood, leading to the risk of cross infection.

This led to postponement of non-emergency cases with only critical issues to be taken up which negatively impacted the patient's health. Now, post-Covid, the Indian dental care market is projected to grow at 20-30 percent. Unfortunately, dentists' distribution across urban and rural geography in the country is skewed. Private players currently dominate the market, and many startups are entering the field. All said and done, for the growth of the Indian dental care sector, the need of the hour is dental insurance to address the financial strain the sector is facing at present, especially due to the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

(The author is freelance

journalist with varied experience in different fields)