Dental hygiene therapy workforce maldistribution and periodontal treatment need in Nigerian urban informal settlements: a geospatial accessibility modelling analysis

The maldistribution of dental hygiene therapy personnel relative to periodontal treatment need in Nigerian urban informal settlements remains poorly characterised, and conventional workforce-to-population ratios conceal the spatial and economic barriers that determine whether care is reachable. The framework is specified as a proposed analytical design rather than an executed empirical study; no primary data were collected. It formalises accessibility as a ratio of supply to demand within a cost-constrained catchment, distinguishes nominal from effective workforce coverage, and derives a maldistribution index that can be computed from routine administrative and survey sources. The model predicts that settlements with high periodontal need but low effective accessibility will cluster at the urban periphery, where workforce density is lowest and travel costs highest. The contribution is a transferable specification that reframes dental hygiene therapy workforce planning around reachable supply rather than headcount, and that identifies the data infrastructure required for its operationalisation in Nigerian cities.