Page 26 - April - June 2023 Edition

DENTISTRY IN UGANDA
The Changing Landscape

Dr. Tom Mutyabule
CEO, Pan Dental Surgery

DID YOU KNOW:
That the earliest known person referred to as a dental practitioner was an
African, Hesy-Re, an Egyptian scribe who died in 2600 BC. He was
appropriately referred to as “Chief of the Toothers”
That the world’s oldest known toothpaste was recorded in 400 AD in Egypt
with a formulation of; mint, salt, grains of pepper and dried iris flower.
That the Greek philosopher Aristotle mistakenly claimed that men had 32
teeth and women had only 30. And therefore, the term “wisdom teeth,”
which presumably only men had.
That silver paste for fillings was developed by the Chinese around 700 AD.

In pre-colonial Uganda however, evidence of dental treatment does not go as far back as the
ones highlighted above. This is because it was largely performed by the local “medicine man”
using; charcoal, chew sticks, lemon juice, lemon grass, ashes, or even a mixture of tobacco
and honey to clean and treat teeth. In fact, the earliest known Ugandan dental practitioner is
one Musa Settimba, who, in 1946 began training on the job at Mulago Hospital under the
supervision of the only two European dentists in Uganda at the time. The country’s oldest
University, Makerere University, didn’t start the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree course until
1982, and later on Dental Technologists and Oral Maxillofacial surgeons.
And now with specialists in Restorative dentistry, Orthodontics, Prosthodontics, Periodontics, Oral
and Maxillofacial surgery, Implantology, and Dental radiology, one does not need to travel
abroad, as was the case 20 years ago, to get state-of-the-art dental treatment.

One such dental practice is Pan Dental Surgery, the pioneers of Digital dentistry in Uganda, who
introduced the first digitally and accurately designed 3-D milled teeth (dental crown) using
CAD/CAM system in 2012 called CEREC (Chair-side Economical Restoration of Esthetic
Ceramics). It’s a system that comfortably and digitally acquires information from the mouth,
computer assisted designs and manufacturers with accurate precision teeth used to replace
that which has been destroyed. This has led to excellence and durability of restorations and
treatments for our clients. Prior to that, manual impressions had to be taken, sent abroad to
dental labs in South Africa or USA, leaving the dentist and patient waiting weeks and sometimes
months to receive the final restoration.

Healthy teeth ... Beautiful Smile

24