Science Journal of Public Health 2017; 5(5): 359-364 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/sjph doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20170505.11 ISSN: 2328-7942 (Print); ISSN: 2328-7950 (Online) Financial Access to Dental Care Through Health Insurance in Senegal Diop Mbathio * , Kanouté Aida, Diouf Massamba, Ndiaye Amadou Diaw, Lo Cheikh Mouhamadou Mbacké, Faye Daouda, Cissé Daouda Department of Public Health Faculty of Medicine, University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Dakar, Senegal Email address: diopmbathio@yahoo.fr (D. Mbathio), aida_kanoute@yahoo.fr (K. Aida), dioufmass78@yahoo.fr (D. Massamba), adnndiaye@gmail.com (N. A. Diaw), cheikhlo54@yahoo.fr (L. C. M. Mbacké), daouda_faye2004@yahoo.fr (F. Daouda), daoudacisse@hotmail.com (C. Daouda) * Corresponding author To cite this article: Diop Mbathio, Kanouté Aida, Diouf Massamba, Ndiaye Amadou Diaw, Lo Cheikh Mouhamadou Mbacké, Faye Daouda, Cissé Daouda. Financial Access to Dental Care Through Health Insurance in Senegal. Science Journal of Public Health. Vol. 5, No. 5, 2017, pp. 359-364. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20170505.11 Received: June 14, 2017; Accepted: June 28, 2017; Published: July 31, 2017 Abstract: Costs of oral disease care are among the most expensive health care cost. In Senegal, more than 20% of most health insurance companies’ healthcare expenditure goes to dental care. A survey, which focused on the financial access to dental care through health insurance in Senegal, was carried out nationwide. The results show that 48.7% of surveyed heads of household have less than 50,000 FCFA monthly incomes, 41% of them have no knowledge of health insurance and only 14.3% are insured by mutual. While more than half of those mutual cover conservative care (51.2%) and extractions (53.5%), they do not for prostheses. Because health insurance partially covers dental care, whereas oral health care are very expensive, insurers and dental surgeons must join forces to contain the expenditure through awareness of community solidarity. Keywords: Oral Care, Health Insurance, Senegal, Africa 1. Introduction Access to health care, in general, and oral care in particular in most African countries is biased. Yet, oral diseaseis a major public health issue because of their high occurrence and huge impact on overall health and quality of life. They are considered the fourth most costly disease to treat worldwide [1]. In Africa, significant inequalities in oral health exist within, as well as between countries. In Senegal, the study carried out by the National Agency of Statistics and Demography [2] highlights the phenomena of impoverishment and the disastrous expenditure due to direct health care payments [3]. To qualify for direct payment, 32.88% of Senegalese households are to be considered poor. The impoverishment due to direct payments was at 0.96% in 2005 and 1.78% in 2011 [3]. Households bearing most of their health care expenditure at their own risk contributes to their increased poverty or a sudden extreme impoverishment [4]. Because of that, the Lancet September 2012 editorial confirms that "direct payments must be abandoned" [5]. Likewise, Ridde's results show that 59% of public health actors favor the abolition of direct payments or free healthcare [6]. Implementing health insurance in the healthcare system could improve the resort to oral health care by picking up the populations’ health bill through voluntary and risks sharing, thus making easy access to health care. For that reason, Senegal commits itself to a universal health coverage policy through the expansion of health insurance mutual. Can these mutual gradually contribute to the access to health care? The aim of this work is to study how health insurance can financially facilitate the access to oral health care in Senegal. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1. Type of Study A cross-sectional and descriptive epidemiological survey