Principal Secretary for Nagaland Health and Family Welfare I Himato Zhimomi has said the state holds the dubious distinction of having the third highest incidences of nasopharyngeal cancer in the world that stems from addiction to tobacco and its by-products by majority of the population.
 

In major towns like Dimapur and Kohima have access to healthcare and dentists, while the far-flung areas of the state are not as fortunate as dentists and even doctors were scarce. Speaking at the 16th Annual General Meeting of the Nagaland chapter of Indian Dental Association (IDA) at Dimapur yesterday as a Special Invitee, Himato Zhimomi called for fiercely tackling nasopharyngeal cancer and taking dental care to remote areas of the State. He outlined four challenges that dentists faced.

The first, according to him, was the need to upgrade skills and knowledge in an ever-evolving field like dentistry where there was “no place for second best,” alongside incorporating robotics and artificial intelligence to keep abreast with changing times. He said the second challenge was for dentists to do “lot of handholding in a society that is still vulnerable and largely unaware” and adopt a humane approach while attending patients. The third challenge, he said was to serve in far flung areas where there was an acute shortage of doctors. He revealed that with around 150 to 200 dentists in the state, the shortage was felt more in remote areas and urged the dentists present to take up the challenge of visiting interior areas.

Himato said the fourth challenge was for dentists to fight the scourge of tobacco consumption that had afflicted many families in the State. Urging the dentists to be ambassadors of hygienic living, he lamented that tobacco consumption was rampant even though it was outright unhealthy.

IDA Nagaland branch President Dr Kezeneilie Pienyu briefed the principal secretary on the issues concerning dentists in Nagaland. In his presidential address, Pienyu remarked, “We have more than 150 dental surgeons in Nagaland. While on one hand, the increase in dental surgeons is good, on the other hand, there is limited prospect of jobs as the vacancies in Government sector is very low. Presently, there are only 33 regular Government doctors and 17 NHM contractual doctors.” Calling for better facilities and creation of more posts, he added, “Most of our dental surgeons have to resort to private practice by setting up their own clinics that requires a huge investment and no financial assistance is provided by the Government.”