The Federal Government has announced plans to upgrade and equip dental facilities nationwide to enhance oral health care quality and ensure easy access to comprehensive dental services.

The FG said efforts are also underway to integrate oral health fully into primary health care, enabling primary health centres to provide a full complement of services, including oral hygiene education, counselling, essential diagnostics, fluoride treatment, restorative services, and referrals when necessary.

Minister of State for Health, Dr. Adekunle Salako, disclosed this during an event marking World Oral Health Day in Abuja.

He said the government is reorganising and expanding the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to ensure more funds are available for oral health services, particularly for vulnerable populations.

He highlighted the global impact of oral diseases, noting that they are the most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs), affecting nearly 50% of the world’s population.

“They are accompanied with high social, economic and health system impacts, affecting people throughout their course of life, causing pain, disfigurement, social isolation, distress and death,” he said.

Dr. Salako specifically drew attention to noma, a rapidly progressing gangrenous infection affecting the face, primarily in malnourished children with poor oral hygiene living in extreme poverty.

He said it begins as a simple gum infection but can lead to severe disfigurement or death within days if untreated.

According to him, Nigeria falls within the “noma belt” in sub-Saharan Africa, with the highest prevalence observed in the North-Western region.

“Factors such as poverty, malnutrition, and poor oral hygiene continue to drive the incidence, while many cases go undiagnosed and untreated due to poor surveillance systems, leading to avoidable deaths,” Salako noted.

He emphasized the urgency of confronting the disease, adding that the ministry has begun training primary health workers, community health workers, and traditional birth attendants on early identification, treatment, and referral of common oral diseases.

He stated, “This approach is helping to reduce stigmatization, raise awareness about oral health, and ensure early identification of noma, cleft lips, or palates for appropriate referral to comprehensive treatment often provided free. More dental professionals will be employed to provide services at these PHCs.

“Our commitment is to ensure that Nigerians have access to appropriate oral health services as part of our universal health coverage agenda. We will continue to train and engage more professionals and ensure that all dental professionals—dental surgeons, therapists, dental technicians, technologists, and assistants—are given the opportunity to play their part.

“Noma is preventable and treatable. It is therefore unacceptable that any child in our country should suffer irreversible disfigurement or die from it.”

Also speaking at the event, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Country Representative, Ahmed Aldikhari, said the organisation has worked closely with the Federal Ministry of Health and the Sokoto State Ministry of Health at the Noma Children’s Hospital.

Aldikhari said MSF has delivered comprehensive care ranging from acute noma treatment and major facial reconstructive surgeries to oral physiotherapy, health promotion, community engagement, nutrition support, and mental health and psychosocial services.

He noted that over the past decade, these joint efforts have enabled more than 1,600 major reconstructive surgeries for 1,074 patients through 33 surgical missions. In 2025 alone, 99 surgeries were performed for 89 patients.

Aldikhari added that 28 national surgeons and 14 anaesthetists have been trained by international specialists, strengthening Nigeria’s long-term capacity to provide quality care for noma patients.

He highlighted a major milestone in the fight against the disease: “A major milestone in our collective work was the inclusion of noma in the WHO list of Neglected Tropical Diseases, as a result of strong global advocacy led jointly by the Nigerian government and MSF.”