{"id":27100,"date":"2023-04-03T14:07:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T14:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho"},"modified":"2023-04-03T14:22:23","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T14:22:23","slug":"dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho","title":{"rendered":"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>THERE are only three government-run health facilities offering dental services to about 330 760 people living in Maseru, thepost heard this week. This has created a crisis for residents who are now forced to sometimes wait months to access dental services.<\/p>\n<p>A doctor who spoke to this newspaper last week said all government-run health facilities had no dentists except the Likotsi Filter Clinic, Queen \u2019Mamohato Memorial Hospital, and the National Health Training Centre (NHTC).<\/p>\n<p>The doctor said one has to book an appointment to access dental services at Queen \u2019Mamohato or the NHTC. \u201cNow bookings are set for June at Ts\u030cepong (Queen \u2019Mamohato) and at the NHTC,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Faced with this crisis, patients are now left with no option but to seek services at private dentists who charge M250 to remove a tooth, way up from the M15 that they would have paid at the subsidised government clinics.<\/p>\n<p>The director of oral health services in the Ministry of Health, Dr Lieketseng Petlane, told thepost last night that she is aware of the situation \u201cbut sometimes it might happen that the patients\u2019 problems attended by dental therapists in clinics need more attention\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo patients have to set an appointment with a dentist for a certain period looking at their problems,\u201d Dr Petlane said.<\/p>\n<p>But she indicated that they will make a follow-up to find out if patients who had set appointments at the NHTC and Queen \u2019Mamohato had met dental therapists or not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPatients cannot set an appointment now to be attended in June without being attended by dental therapists,\u201d she said. She said dentists from other countries are also helping to relieve the situation in Lesotho.<\/p>\n<p>Health Minister Selibe Mochoboroane promised to investigate the matter urgently and decide on means to solve the problem. Lack of oral health professionals is a serious problem countrywide.<\/p>\n<p>A study published last year, undertaken by two health researchers at the University of Pretoria, shows that the Lesotho National Dental Database includes only 30 dentists serving about 2.2 million people, which means that there is one dentist for every 66 666 people.<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, the study says, the dentist to patient ratio in developed countries is one dentist for every 2000 people. \u201cThe actual picture in Lesotho is much grimmer, as some of these dentists work as educators at the National Health Training College, while others are in managerial, non-clinical roles,\u201d the study says.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\">Lesotho<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. THERE are only three government-run health facilities offering dental services to about 330 760 people living in Maseru, thepost heard this week. This has created a crisis for residents who are now forced to sometimes wait months to access dental services. A doctor who spoke to this newspaper last week said all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":27098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,7],"tags":[233,246,227,245],"class_list":["post-27100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-head-lines","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-health","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THERE are only three government-run health facilities offering dental services to about 330 760 people living in Maseru, ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THERE are only three government-run health facilities offering dental services to about 330 760 people living in Maseru, ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-03T14:07:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-03T14:22:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680515177.58.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"461\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-03T14:07:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-03T14:22:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho\"},\"wordCount\":410,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680515177.58.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Health\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"head lines\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho\",\"name\":\"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680515177.58.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-03T14:07:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-03T14:22:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"THERE are only three government-run health facilities offering dental services to about 330 760 people living in Maseru, ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680515177.58.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680515177.58.jpg\",\"width\":768,\"height\":461,\"caption\":\"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho - Lesotho","description":"THERE are only three government-run health facilities offering dental services to about 330 760 people living in Maseru, ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho","og_description":"THERE are only three government-run health facilities offering dental services to about 330 760 people living in Maseru, ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2023-04-03T14:07:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-04-03T14:22:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":461,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680515177.58.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho","datePublished":"2023-04-03T14:07:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-03T14:22:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho"},"wordCount":410,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680515177.58.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","Health","Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","community","head lines"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho","name":"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680515177.58.jpg","datePublished":"2023-04-03T14:07:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-03T14:22:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"THERE are only three government-run health facilities offering dental services to about 330 760 people living in Maseru, ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680515177.58.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/04\/postQueueImg_1680515177.58.jpg","width":768,"height":461,"caption":"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/dentists-shortage-hits-lesotho#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dentists\u2019 shortage hits Lesotho"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}