Advocating for access to oral health care in rural Nigeria

In Nigeria, less than 20% of the population has access to oral health care. This reflects a stark reality in many parts of the world--dental health remains one of the most neglected areas of public health. Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan, Executive Director of the Dentalcare Foundation, rural dentist, and advocate for oral health advancement in Nigeria, has been named IHME's 2025 Roux Prize winner. The Roux Prize recognizes individuals all over the globe who have used evidence-based health data to improve population health. The prize is sponsored by IHME’s founding board member David Roux and his wife, Barbara. • Learn more about Dr. Adeniyan's work and impact in her community: https://www.healthdata.org/research-analysis/library/2025-roux-prize-recipient-dr-adekemi-adeniyan • Read the press release announcement about Dr. Adeniyan for this year's Roux Prize: https://www.healthdata.org/news-events/newsroom/news-releases/ihmes-2025-roux-prize-awarded-rural-health-equity-advocate _______________________________ Transcript

Rhonda Stewart: Welcome to Global Health Insights, a podcast from IHME, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Hi, I’m Rhonda Stewart.

In Nigeria, less than 20% of the population has access to oral health care. This reflects a stark reality: in many parts of the world, dental health remains one of the most neglected areas of public health. The Dentalcare Foundation has deployed mobile dental clinics and Nigeria’s first solar-powered tele-dental kiosks, delivering care to over 100,000 people in rural communities.

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan is the Executive Director of the Dentalcare Foundation. She is a rural dentist, advocate for oral health advancement, and winner of the 2025 Roux Prize. Now in its 12th year, the Roux Prize recognizes individuals all over the globe who have used evidence-based health data to improve population health.

The prize is sponsored by IHME’s founding board member David Roux and his wife, Barbara.

Dr. Adeniyan is passionate about collaboration. The Dentalcare Foundation has trained over 2,500 teachers and community health workers to promote oral health in their localities, helping to create a network of advocates that multiplies her impact across borders.

Dr. Adeniyan joined the conversation from Nigeria.

Dr. Adeniyan, congratulations on being named the 2025 Roux Prize winner on behalf of the Dentalcare Foundation. Before we dive into your work, tell us about why the foundation was established – what are the problems that it was created to solve?

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan: Thank you so much. It’s such an honor to be here and such an honor to be the 2025 Roux Prize winner.

You know, I grew up in Agege, Lagos, Nigeria. It’s kind of a slum and a crowded community. And in that community, access to health care, especially dental care, is almost nonexistent. And for me, I saw many of our neighbors living with toothache for years. They couldn’t afford treatment. And I myself, at the age of 7, I had toothache and I couldn’t even afford to tell my parents about it because one, there was no access to a dental care facility. And at that time my parents couldn’t even afford it.

So communities like this experience children’s laughter being silenced with pain. And this is something that can easily be prevented. So years later, as a dentist, I got to serve in a rural community in Nigeria. That was when I realized that little had changed. Nothing had changed. In fact, patients would travel hours to come into my dental clinic just to have one tooth removed. They wouldn't be able to pay for it.

I would see many children come in, some who had never owned a toothbrush or seen a dentist in their life. And this broke my heart. Day to day, day to day.

So that was why I decided to start Dentalcare Foundation – to make sure that every child has access to dental health care no matter where they are born, no matter where they find themselves.

And the mission of the organization is simple. We just bring oral health care and education to communities that have been long forgotten. And our biggest problem, should I say the problem that we’ve been created to solve, is inequity – oral health inequity.

For instance, in Nigeria, less than 20% have ever visited a dentist. And many in the rural communities where I work, they don’t even have access to a dentist. There’s only one dentist to every 100,000 people. And that in itself is a gap.

If you want to compare it to the World Health Organization’s recommendation, which is like one dentist to 7,500 people, that’s a really staggering gap. And so that’s why my organization goes to ensure that there’s proper education. Because tooth decay and gum diseases are more common in this area of the world, yet their education is lacking.

Rhonda Stewart: That’s incredibly powerful. So for you, it was a mix of personal experience and then things that you’ve seen as a physician and as a dentist.

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan: I feel like the organization was born out of pain and purpose.

Rhonda Stewart: Yes, born out of pain and purpose. You spoke about the situation in Nigeria. What do you think accounts for the small number of dentists in the country?

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan: Well, first of all, we are a country of over 200 million people, and the country has fewer than 5,000 dentists. So you can imagine 5,000 dentists serving over 200 million people. And most of these dentists are concentrated in the major cities like Lagos and Abuja. So a child in a rural village could grow up and never, ever see a dentist.

Now, number two is that most of the public dental clinics are very, very underfunded. Preventive care is not prioritized, and oral health care is generally not seen as overall well-being. And most of the national health campaigns that is in Nigeria, they are tailored toward malaria, maternal health, HIV, and it’s understandable. But rarely do you find things that are tailored toward oral health. And because of the lack of dentists and the lack of information, this gap is always existing. So even though poor oral health is linked to heart diseases, diabetes, pregnancy complications and all, it’s still being silent because nobody hears about it.

And that’s why my advocacy really focuses on helping people and policymakers understand why the mouth is not separate from the body and why we need to change the narrative.

Rhonda Stewart: And you just alluded to this in a very powerful way. Why is it that you think that dental care is such an overlooked component of public health?

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan: Well, that’s so interesting because I feel like this is a question I always ask myself all the time. But I think it’s because dental care doesn’t really scream for attention like every other health issue that we have, until it’s too late.

A toothache doesn’t come like an emergency until someone can’t eat, someone can’t sleep, or someone can’t go to school because of pain. And the truth is, globally, 3.5 billion people around the world have been affected by oral health, yet it’s still being silent. That is because most people think is not a priority.

Most countries spend less than 1% of their health budget on dental care – for Nigeria especially. And this is just negligible. And I would say part of it is perception. Perception, perception, perception. People think oral health is cosmetic. People think oral health is just one of those things that can be sidelined.

But the truth is oral health is about your dignity. It’s about your confidence, about an opportunity. A child who hides their smile may struggle in school or in social life. It can even affect your relationship, or getting a job. So when we talk about oral health, we are really talking about the potential of people, but it’s seen in the wrong perspective. That’s why I think the perception around oral health needs to change.

Rhonda Stewart: Absolutely. In addition to your work with the Dentalcare Foundation, you are also the founder of a health edtech company called Smile Superheroes. Tell us about that work.

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan: Yeah, Smile Superheroes is a health edtech company. And the main aim of the company is to simplify health information for children.

So what we do is that we use storybooks, animation, and virtual reality to make learning about health fun, inclusive, and most unforgettable for them. I often describe this as the Disney of health care, because we believe that children everywhere deserve to see themselves as the heroes of their own health story.

And that is why we create the stories and animations to allow children to think about health in a different way – allowing children to literally step inside a storybook or an animation and learn how to play but also learn about their health.

Rhonda Stewart: That’s fantastic. And let’s talk a little bit about the impact of your work. We would love to hear about the impact of your Smile Superheroes work, as well as the impact of your Dentalcare Foundation work.

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan: Yeah, it’s a great thing because what started as a one-man organization, Dentalcare Foundation today has become a movement. And that’s the way I see it because we’ve provided free oral health care and education to over 120,000 children, not just in Nigeria, but across Philippines, South Africa, Ghana, just across the world. We’ve trained community health workers and teachers to promote daily brushing and oral hygiene in schools because we believe that they have first contact with children.

And our Healthy Mouth campaign has distributed over 30,000 toothbrushes and hygiene kits in many rural communities. In Nigeria, we’ve partnered with Ministry of Health Education. We created the first dental kiosk in Nigeria that is reaching over 45,000 people in the rural community. And that itself, it’s great work. And coupled with what we are doing with Smile Superheroes, I was able to write the first oral health storybook in Nigeria called The Girl Who Found Her Smile.

And that storybook has also become a movement, becoming the first virtual reality story or health storybook in Africa, not just in Nigeria, where children can immerse themselves in virtual reality and learn about their health and learn about their mouth.

Rhonda Stewart: That’s fantastic. You mentioned the wonderful collaborative efforts, the ways that you’ve trained professionals in other countries. Tell us what’s next for you and the Dentalcare Foundation.

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan: I believe that what’s next is always about innovation, and I would say basically innovation for equity. Innovation, innovation, innovation.

Part of our next movement is just expanding into other countries. Last year, we’ve been able to expand into Philippines to establish the work. But we don’t just want to stop there, we want to move into Southeast Asia. Other countries are experiencing the same thing that we do in Nigeria. We’re working on setting up toothbrushing hubs, vibrant community spaces for children where they can learn how to brush, have access to clean water, and also kind of create a safe environment to talk about their mouth.

We are thinking of launching new creative projects that are merging arts, technology, and public health using virtual reality, games, music to teach oral health in schools and marketplaces. And we want to do it in the languages that these children understand.

We want to take this to them and make them feel like they own the narrative. So one of the things that we’re also going to be doing is expanding our mobile dental units and tele-dental care through thinking about expanding it into different countries and different regions where they do not have access to a dental clinic.

So basically, I would say that our vision is really, really bold, and we intend to pursue it because the main aim is to ensure that no child anywhere will suffer from a toothache, And that’s where we are going.

Rhonda Stewart: Wonderful. Well, Dr. Adeniyan, thank you so much. The work that you do is so powerful, and it really does touch an area of health that is very much underrepresented. So thank you, and congratulations again for your win with the Roux Prize.

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan: Oh, thank you so much. You know, winning the Roux Prize has given me a global platform, and the truth is we’re going to use it to prove that oral health innovation can start from everywhere, can start from Nigeria and inspire the whole world. And that’s the aim.

Rhonda Stewart: Fantastic. Thank you again.

Dr. Adekemi Adeniyan: Thank you.

Rhonda Stewart: Details about the Dentalcare Foundation can be found at dcarefoundation.org.

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An independent population health research organization based at the University of Washington School of Medicine, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) works with collaborators around the world to develop timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence that illuminates the state of health everywhere. In making our research available and approachable, we aim to inform health policy and practice in pursuit of our vision: all people living long lives in full health. Learn more about IHME. Where to follow us:

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