Digital dental clinic opens in Lagos, harps on preventing tooth, gum problems

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3 years ago

From left, Deputy Managing Director, Plug Platform Ltd, Ms Okiemute Akoko; Managing Director, Leadway Assurance Company Limited, Mr Oye Odukale, and Managing Dentist, Choice Dental, Dr Shade Akiode, at the grand opening of Choice Dental in GRA, Ikeja, recently.

CHOICE Dental, a digital dental clinic with state-of-the-art equipment, has opened in Ikeja, Lagos, with services focusing on preventive dental care.

Managing Dentist, Choice Dental, Dr Sade Akiode, at its opening ceremony, said it was to provide preventive dentistry including comprehensive dental examination, digital X-rays, sealant, oral cancer screening, and dental cleaning to Nigerians.

Dr Akiode, with over 20 years of successful dental practice in Los Angeles, California, said she decided to come back to Nigeria in 2011 to avail Nigerians of the same world-class dental care that her patients in the United States enjoy and to reduce the incidence of Nigerians travelling abroad for medical tourism.

“We have since set up a thriving dental clinic at Karimu Kotun, Victoria Island, Lagos, with Ikeja branch being our second in Lagos and Nigeria,” said Dr Akiode.

According to her, the new dental clinic has nine operating suites made up of the general section, VIP and children’s sections. Operated by well-trained dentists, radiographers and other ancillary dental staff, Choice Dental is able to offer a wide range of other services in addition to preventive dentistry.

These are cosmetic dentistry which includes teeth whitening, splinting, and smile makeover; general Dentistry such as white fillings, root canal therapy, dentures, extractions, children’s dentistry, and dental implants, among others.

Dr Akiode explained that Choice Dental also offers specialised services such as full mouth reconstruction, oral surgery, laser surgery and orthodontics.

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She decried the global and local attention paid to diseases like malaria, HIV AIDS, and COVID-19 at the detriment of gum and mouth diseases, which can lead to other ailments such as erectile dysfunction, cardiovascular diseases and even death in some cases.

On his part, Chairman of the Board of Choice Dental, Dr Ernest Ndukwe, spoke on the need for attitudinal change among Nigerians with respect to their oral health, and asked that they imbibe the culture of regular dental check-ups instead of waiting until they have toothache or pain in the mouth before going to see a dentist.

The Global Burden of Disease study 2019 estimated that oral diseases affect close to 3.5 billion people worldwide, with caries of permanent teeth being the most common condition.

Globally, $200 billion is lost annually due to poor attention to oral health care. Likewise, Nigeria loses between N300 and N500 million every year to this too.