PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Oral Health Promotion
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1545988
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Health Policies for Improved Oral Health OutcomesView all 14 articles
Access to adolescent-responsive oral, mental, sexual, and reproductive healthcare services in Africa through the dental clinics
Provisionally accepted
- 1Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, International Research Centre of Excellence (IRCE), Abuja, Nigeria
- 2Alexandria University, Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
- 3Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Osun, Nigeria
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In many healthcare systems, oral healthcare is provided separately from other clinical services. For 10-19-year-old adolescents in particular, this separation of care perpetuates the underutilization of oral health services and the neglect of oral health. Available evidence indicates that there are interconnections between oral, mental, sexual, and reproductive health (OMSRH) in adolescents. For African countries, there are opportunities to draw on lessons learned from HIV-centered models of integrated care to develop and evaluate dental clinic-centered models for integrating adolescent OMSRH services. This article makes a case for evidence-based adolescent OMSRH service integration in African countries. Integration is expected to align with the principles of sustainable development goals, universal healthcare, and the World Health Organization's calls for adolescent-responsive health services. We present a conceptual framework and propose an implementation science-guided blueprint for the integration of adolescent OMSRH care. The focus on dental clinics for integration can potentially increase access to, and use of oral healthcare while addressing adolescents' mental, sexual and reproductive health needs. OMSRH integration for adolescents in African settings will require intensive engagement of adolescents and other crucial stakeholders. Further exploratory and implementation research is also needed to design and evaluate OMSRH integration models to establish best practices for long-term impact on adolescent health outcomes.
Keywords: adolescents, Delivery of healthcare, Health service integration, Dental Clinics, HIV, Africa
Received: 16 Dec 2024; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sam-Agudu, Osa-Afiana, El Tantawi and Folayan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Nadia A Sam-Agudu, Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, International Research Centre of Excellence (IRCE), Abuja, Nigeria
Morenike Oluwatoyin Folayan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, 220005, Osun, Nigeria
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