Low-cost mobile dental unit for oral care service delivery in third world countries: from concept to operation
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Low-cost mobile dental unit for oral care service delivery in third world countries: from concept to operation Momo Foutse 1 & Mohamadou Youssoufa 1,2 & Pascalin Tiam Kapen 1,3 & Samuel Chapi Tchounang 1 Received: 24 April 2020 / Accepted: 13 August 2020 # IUPESM and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract In this paper, we design and implement two low-cost dental units in order to remedy the difficulties of its accessibility for healthcare services in hospitals and the difficulties encountered with the maintenance of medical equipment. In developing countries, income is low and a huge amount of people do not have access to basic dental healthcare partly due to the cost involved in the purchase and maintenance of imported dental units. In the present work, two varieties of dental units were designed and built using electronic, pneumatic and hydraulic circuits. The first one is a dental cabinet with an electronic command board and without a chair. The second is made of hydraulic and pneumatic systems as command with a foldable chair and a stand. The pneumatic and hydraulic systems enable the dentist to operate the instruments by hand and/or foot. The mechanical design of the two dental units was done in Inventor software. Both equipment types were installed in three healthcare centres in Cameroon and their initial social impact was investigated. Keywords Low-cost mobile dental unit . Electronic pneumatic . Hydraulic circuits . Inventor software . Social impact
1 Introduction Low and middle-income countries (LMICs) comprise 84% of the global population that experiences 90% of the global disease burden and are mostly found in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia [1]. Billions of people lack basic coverage of health services and live with unnecessary and easily avoidable pain and disability [2, 3]. Scarce funds are wasted and disadvantaged groups get the least public resources despite having the greatest needs [4]. In many instances, access to quality health and especially oral health care is limited in LMICs. Health services were reported as frequently unavailable, prohibitively expensive, underfunded, under staffed or under equipped [5]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), oral diseases such as dental caries, periodontal diseases and cancers of the
* Momo Foutse [email protected] 1
Higher Institute of Science and Technology, Université des Montagnes, P.O. Box 208, Bangangté, Cameroon
2
University Institute of Technology, University of Ngaoundere, P.O. Box 455, Ngaoundere, Cameroon
3
URISIE, IUT-FV Bandjoun, University of Dschang, P.O. Box 134, Bandjoun, Cameroon
oral cavity and pharynx are some of health problems throughout the world, especially in developing countries [6]. Affordability and accessibility are important determinants of health service utilization in many LMICs. However, most of the countries depend on direct out-of-pocket expenditure as the primary source of health system finance [1, 7, 8]. Furthermore, in many LMICs, oral health servi
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