Establishing an undergraduate Bachelor of Dental Surgery degree in the Department of Oral Health Sciences at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) was a major focus of The MalDent Project at its inception. The first cohort of dental students graduated in April 2025 and the course now has 179 students enrolled across the programme.
However, the longer term ambition is for the Department of Oral Health Sciences to also develop its research capacity and, ultimately, to establish postgraduate programmes.
Recently, there have been some exciting green shoots demonstrating the stirrings of oral and dental research activity in the Department of Oral Health Sciences – both staff and student led.
Kamuzu University of Health Sciences 5th Research Dissemination Conference
At this year’s KUHeS Research Dissemination Conference three dental students, Wezzie Nkhata, Hopeson Mtaka and Joel Kudzu, presented research data that they had generated as part of their BDS studies.
Wezzie Nkhata’s paper was entitled ‘Dental caries among patients with controlled Type 2 diabetes at Kamuzu Central Hospital‘. The research had been conducted by Wezzie in collaboration with fellow students Richard Longwe, Tadala Maida and Peace Kayira.
Hopeson Mataka’s paper was entitled ‘Exploring the use of traditional medicine for oral health among women in Ntchisi District’. This work had been completed with fellow students Gift Kampeni and Patrick Moses.
Joel Kudzu presented a poster entitled ‘MoyoWanga: a multi-language digital chronic disease support ecosystem for improving medication adherence in Malawi’.
Many congratulations to these three students and their supervisors for contributing to the RDC and for being such excellent ambassadors for the Department of Oral Health Sciences.
55th Scientific Meeting of the South African Branch of the International Association for Dental Research
Two of the Assistant Lecturers who were appointed to the Department of Oral Health Sciences at KUHeS in the early stages of The MalDent Project have been undertaking postgraduate clinical training at the University of Pretoria. Dr Don Chiwaya is training in Dental Public Health and Dr James Mdala in Head and Neck Pathology. Both Don and James have presented papers at the recent IADR South African Division meeting in Pretoria.
Don’s presentation was entitled ‘Prescription patterns of clinicians in selected oral health care facilities in Gauteng Province’. The study highlighted the impact of unnecessary prescriptions of both analgesics and antibiotics on the community in terms of antimicrobial resistance and the cost of prescriptions.
On the basis of this presentation, Don won the Colgate Community Competition for 2026:
James’ presentation was entitled ‘Central intraosseous mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the mandible: a case report and literature review’.
Many congratulations to Don and James on their success. We look forward to their return to Malawi, bringing with them their specialist skills following completion of training.
All these presentations mark a small but important step forward in developing research capacity within the Department of Oral Health Sciences, and build on presentations at last year’s KUHeS Research Dissemination Conference by Dr Nathan Lungu and Daniel Mark James.
A joint University of Glasgow / KUHeS grant application has recently been submitted to the International Association for Dental Research in a bid to win funding that will support research training for junior staff in the Department of Oral Health Sciences. If successful, this will be a further important advance as the Department of Oral Health Sciences develops its research potential.