KMPDC has raised concerns over how dental clinics present practitioners, qualifications and clinical responsibilities to patients. [Illustration/AI]
The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) says patients may not always know whether they are being treated by a dentist or a Community Oral Health Officer.
Community Oral Health Officers, dentists and specialists have different professional roles and scopes of practice, yet clinics do not always make the distinction clear when advertising their services.
KMPDC says patients should be able to establish the qualifications, professional status and scope of practice of the person providing or supervising their treatment before agreeing to a procedure.
The council's Disciplinary and Ethics Committee said the distinction becomes important when clinics advertise procedures that require the involvement of registered dentists or specialists.
Under the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act, the title "Doctor" is restricted to people registered or licensed as medical practitioners or dentists or those with another qualification entitling them to use it.
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The council's advertising rules also require healthcare marketing to be objective, true and dignified, and prohibit misleading information used to attract patients.
The concerns emerged from a ruling issued on September 10 involving Celestial Dental Centre and its proprietor, Dennis Onyango Ombeo, a Community Oral Health Officer who appeared in a promotional video as "Dr Dennis".
The Disciplinary and Ethics Committee found Ombeo was not registered as a medical practitioner or dentist and had not demonstrated another qualification entitling him to use the title.
The committee fined Ombeo Sh1m for the unauthorised use of the title and imposed a further Sh1m fine on Celestial Dental for permitting the representation on its platform.
The inquiry followed a complaint by the Kenya Dental Association over promotional material for Celestial Dental's Kamakis branch.
Ombeo told the committee he held a diploma in Community Oral Health and remained registered in that professional category. He said the clinic brought in qualified dentists and specialists when patients required procedures outside the scope of Community Oral Health Officers.
That explanation led the committee to examine how the clinic documented its arrangements with those practitioners.
It asked whether the clinic had contracts, engagement letters or other documents setting out their roles, periods of engagement and responsibility for clinical supervision.
The provider list submitted by the clinic did not, on its own, establish those arrangements, the committee found. It also raised concerns over the absence of a clearly documented dentist-in-charge arrangement.
A visiting specialist attending for a particular procedure did not automatically assume responsibility for the facility's day-to-day clinical affairs, emergency arrangements or continuity of care, the committee said.
"The Committee is therefore satisfied that the Dental Clinic did not demonstrate adequate governance structures in relation to clinical leadership and professional oversight," the committee said.
Ombeo maintained he did not intend to mislead patients and said the clinic corrected its online material after the council raised the issue.
He initially attributed some of the online references to a website developer. Still, he later accepted responsibility for the promotional material after the committee questioned him over his appearance in the video.
The committee said a clinic could not avoid regulatory responsibility for its advertising simply because a third party had produced or published the material. It held Celestial Dental responsible for the content on its platforms.
The inquiry also raised questions over dentist Dr Martin Luther King Ogada's association with the clinic.
The committee said the material before it did not sufficiently establish the nature and extent of his involvement or whether he exercised active professional oversight.
Ogada has been summoned to explain how his name and credentials became associated with the facility.
The committee has ordered a regulatory inspection of Celestial Dental to verify its staffing, governance arrangements, recruitment practices and compliance with professional requirements.
It also recommended sensitising dental professionals to the risks of lending their names or credentials to facilities without active supervision.