Dentistry! Where are we heading!

“The furcation is involved; this tooth won’t serve you for too long!” “The decay has almost reached the root, better to remove it and replace it!” “It’s mobile! Saving it requires more appointments, and then we are not sure how your tissues response will be; I suggest replacing it with a DENTAL IMPLANT!” Sounds like your own self? Don’t worry every second dental surgeon sounds like this today! Dental Implants are undoubtedly the biggest boon in dentistry both for the dentist and the patient. No cutting of the adjacent teeth, no ill-fitting dentures, and a magical tooth back in place along with an artificial root. But does that mean using this magic, in teeth, which can rather heal with your time and efforts? With the multiple courses which train and teach Dental Implantology we have many “trained Dental Implantologists” in the fraternity today, thus, where it was once rare for a dentist to dare an Implant in their own clinic, today everyone is in a position to take it up. T

The images that I have put are that of a mandibular third molar which was extracted by a general dentist, and an anterior root canal which was access opened by an endodontist. I witnessed the first at a clinic where I went to enquire for consultations, and the second was forwarded to me for an opinion regarding the treatment plan.  To my knowledge, both the operating dentists of the independent images are very good at their work. If some of you are still wondering what’s with that extracted tooth? Then well, it does have a roughly 2-3mms of apical segment broken from one root, and the marginal gingiva is attached to the tooth on its proximal and buccal aspect. And with the radiograph! I am sure many of you from the other specialties would be gasping and thinking, wow! I am indeed better than the endodontists! But my point to put these here is to make you aware that good practitioners too may create blunders when in hurry! While at the clinic for consultation where this extractio

So day before yesterday I had this middle aged lady in my clinic with discomfort and pain in the upper right quadrant. I could see no frank pathology in that region, except a metal ceramic crown with the second molar which she had got placed some eight months back. After removing some local deposits from that region I could locate the pain to the area between the first and the second molar. There was some food lodgment there and I suspected a proximal decay with the first molar because there was some discoloration and roughness. I went ahead with a radiograph but the tooth appeared intact with no radiolucency, I was still in two thoughts; both the first and the second molar were slightly tender, but neither could I see any periapical pathology nor I could see a decay. I removed the food that was sitting in between the two teeth but could not find a lot to curette. I scheduled the patient for my endodontist, to finalize, take a call and start any RC/Re-RC. Since even he could not pin

So here is a picture which I took while I was between my sub-gingival scaling procedure today!  My patient was a 33-year-old man who complained that, since he was told to get his teeth cleaned once every six months, he has developed bleeding and receding gums! He said that the whole idea is wrong and he has to face a lot because of the same now! Apparently, this man has been getting his scaling done once every six months, and wow this is the state of his gums! I really don’t know what makes the dentists ignore such a basic procedure! Or maybe because we have been focusing more on the “big cases” and “Dental Implants” we forget that it is our duty to give our patients the basics right! I can’t describe the amount of negativity he had for dentists and the notion of regular oral checkups! As per him, regular visits are just a money minting procedure, because he ended up in disease despite doing the same since past 5 years! I feel if the treatment is done like this then yes regular check

After a long day of events today, I was finally home a while back. I prepared my tea, sat with my phone and I was just browsing through my Facebook page. Well, to my surprise at least three out of every ten posts on my page were about advertisements on “Skill enhancement courses in Dentistry”. Course by a certified specialist said one and hurry up for early bird registration said the other! With various permutation and combination, some offering free kits, to some providing a free lecture on Practice management, there is no stone that is left unturned for getting students to attend the skill enhancement programs! This is being done by the same all of us from the dental fraternity, who otherwise regret the opening of too many private colleges which offer MDS seats, who otherwise sign petitions online for increasing the basic pay for dental graduates, and who otherwise realize that there is an overall fall in the quality of practice despite the rise in the number of dentists! Of cour

After having visited a lot of hospitals around my place I finally found “my kind of work environment” in a huge upcoming dental hospital in the city and I joined without hitch with a decent deal.  Initially, however because of shifting the relatively small setup to the bigger building we had a lot more to do than just treating patients, be it getting the dental chairs installed or making a list of how many more personnel we would need, the team including me did it all. In the process of making a check-list one day a couple of days back I pointed out to the need for dental assistants in the setup, my idea was to hire some in advance before we start full-fledged so that we could train them as per our requirements for a smoother functioning of the place. Apparently, when I said that me and my boss were sitting with a man who had visited us from a firm which deals with house-keeping people, my boss too realised the need of assistants and asked him if he could get us some people for the j

Are you someone who is health conscious? Someone who wants to be fit, and someone who believes in regular health checkups? Great! In that case, this article is surely meant to be for you. Or wait you said you are not! Well, in that case, you should definitely read this article. Being healthy is not being free of pain, and being healthy involves all the aspects of physical, mental, and not to forget the dental health. Teeth are those crucial portions of our body which can alternatively be called as the “gateway that leads to all other organs”, it is your teeth which determine the extent to which you can chew, the kind of food that you can consume and besides these the health of your teeth also determines your overall general health status. You may be surprised to know that dental infection can be the reason why your blood sugar levels may still be high despite the best of care you take. Ignoring the teeth can cost you a lot more than the bills that you pay to your dentist. Thus, it is