Oral Health System in Saudi Arabia

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I. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is located in the Southwest of the continent of Asia, with approximately 29.196 million people as explained by the world population statistics in 2013 (1). The percentage of the population over 60 years olds is expected to rise by 7% by the 2020 (2). A proper understanding of the structure and infrastructure of the oral healthcare system in Saudi Arabia is substantial in order to improve the existing oral health policies and the outcomes in the country.
Certainly, Saudi Arabia had shown a remarkable improvement in its overall health indicators including life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, immunization level and infectious disease (3). The life expectancy at birth in Saudi Arabia is nearly 74.04 years among males and 78.25 years among females, it shows that females have higher life expectancy than males (4).
While infant mortality rate in male is close to 13.79 deaths per 1,000 live births comparing to almost 10.15 deaths per 1,000 live births in female (4).
Equally important, Saudi Arabia has an economic boom, and this economically growing has shown a notable reduction and improvement in child mortality (5). The gross domestic product per capita (GDP) was estimated to be around $20,700 and the health expenditures as a percentage of GDP is about4.0 (4). In 2006, the total expenditure that was allocated to the Ministry of Health (MOH) was 6% of the total government budget, which account 44% of all health care expenditure (3).
In 2014, the government had spent lot of resources on the health system. Of which dental expenditure had 12.63% of the overall budget of the MOH to supply and establish dental clinics. In addition to recr...

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