Dental nurse training in Cambodia--a new approach

In 1993 a 4-5 month programme to train rural dental nurses in Cambodia was introduced. Courses have now been conducted in 12 of Cambodia's 22 provinces. The dental nurses are trained to provide simple treatment, including local anaesthetic, extractions, ART restorations, and scaling, for all age groups, and also learn how to introduce prevention and oral health promotion activities within their communities. On completion of training nurses are supplied with a set of basic instruments and some materials. Evaluation has shown the programme to be meeting the oral health needs of the rural people where there are no dentists and a number of unique strengths were identified. A recent planning workshop on oral health care in Cambodia to 2005 decided to set up a dental nurses training school in two provincial capitals, and to increase the number of nurses in training. At the same time the annual number of new dentists being trained will be limited to ten. The expansion of the dental nurses training programme will ensure that increasingly more of the population have access to basic preventive and curative dental care, and at a cost which the country can afford.