Abstract:
Oral conditions disproportionately affect mothers and children in Sub-Saharan
Africa, due to biological vulnerabilities, a scarcity of oral health workers,
deficient preventive strategies, and gender-based barriers to care. The World
Health Organization (WHO) recommends integrating oral health into broader
health delivery models, to reduce these disparities. We propose integrating
preventive oral healthcare into community-based programs to bridge these
gaps. We examine integrating preventive oral healthcare into Western Kenya’s
Chamas for Change (Chamas) community-based program which aims to
reduce maternal and child health disparities. Chamas incorporates women’s
health and microfinance programs best practices to produce a low-cost,
community-driven, sustainable, and culturally acceptable health delivery
platform. Our strategy is based on the Maternal and Child Oral Health
Framework and uses the WHO Basic Package of Oral Care principles. This
framework prioritizes community involvement, cultural sensitivity, regular
screenings, and seamless integration into general health sessions. We discuss
the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to enriching Chamas
with oral health promotion activities. It is crucial to assess the effectiveness,
sustainability, and acceptability of the proposed strategy through
implementation and evaluation. Future studies should investigate the long-
term impact of integrated oral health models on community health and oral
health disparity reduction in Africa