Tanzania oral health workers' views on the relevance of their training to their duties.

Oral health care in Tanzania is provided by three types of dental personnel, namely dental therapist, assistant dental officers and dental officers assisted by dental surgery assistants and dental technicians. The training of dental therapists under the Ministry of Health dates back to 1955 and takes three years after completion of secondary school education. Assistant dental officers are usually dental therapists who have at least five years of professional experience. They can seek admission to the school of Assistant Dental Officers in Muhimbili Medical Centre, Dar es Salaam and their training is of two years duration. The main objective of the dental school in Dar-es-Salaam is to train students in their local environment and create dentists who are better suited for working in Tanzania. The purpose of the study was to study Tanzanian oral health workers opinions of their undergraduate training programme in relation to their professional duties. A structure questionnaire was completed by 85 oral health care workers. Most of the subjects, especially the specific dental disciplines, taught during the training were considered very important. Only minor differences were found among the three categories of dental personnel. In general the participants' reported their level of theoretical knowledge and level of competence to be rather high.