Exploring the Demographic Dividend for Dentistry in Africa– An Opinion Piece

Abstract

By 2050, it is estimated that a quarter of the world’s population will be African. Please stop and consider this. In 25 years - within my life span - one in four people will 1 be African. 2.5 billion people. Double the current and projected population of China. Moreover, 37% of the population will be under the age of 18, the ideal age for orthodontics. Sitting through the graduation ceremony of one of Ghana’s most elite schools and hearing these statistics, I felt breathless with the awareness of the responsibility and the opportunity that this holds for dentistry in Africa.
The dentistry that we teach today will account for a substantial proportion of the dentistry practiced worldwide. It is easy to point to increasing dental diseases, rising awareness of oral health, and advancements in dental technology as the key factors for growth, but as dental practitioners, researchers, and educators in Africa, what are we doing to position ourselves for this avalanche? For example, as an orthodontist, the retention regimes currently prescribed and taught globally are largely ineffective for the African cohort I treat. It is unequivocal that the typical features of
an African malocclusion are more prone to relapse from midline diastemas to habit-induced bimaxillary proclination and anterior open bites.