UKRAINE: Oksana Dmytriieva, a former dentist and deputy Health Minister of the Ukrainian government talks regarding Ukraine - Russia war and how it has affected the dental industry in Ukraine.
The former restorative dental practice owner said that she would like dentistry in Ukraine to possess full indemnity like in other foreign countries. However, the government has not yet passed this proposed legislation.
As a Health Minister with special responsibility for organ transplantation, the country has continued these essential procedures even during times of war. She said "During the month of October we performed 35 transplants. This is even though there are interruptions in the electricity supply. By employing generators, our surgeons continue to work and save lives."
During such adverse times, Dmytriieva said that patients have had to travel far and wide to receive dental treatment. "Our soldiers and citizens in these places, due to the current circumstances, are not able to go to a dentist. So, dentists need to go to them."
Thanks to international financial assistance, Dmytriieva was able to set up a mobile dental surgery, to treat patients in Ukraine that are unable to access dental care. She said that the country needs at least 40 such mobile dental surgeries, to reduce the incidence of dental diseases in war-struck areas. In such areas, there is an absence of electricity supply, and therefore, clinics as unable to run as usual.
"I have just returned from Kherson. There is no electricity supply at the moment and the clinics aren’t working. We need more of these mobile clinics immediately."
Dmytriieva believes that often, other medical specialties get ample attention, and dentistry, as a branch of health care services, gets ignored. She thinks that this is because of the misconception that dentistry is just " a matter of cosmetics".
