Achieve self reliance in dental health care: President

Hyderabad, June 29 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today called on the medical practitioners and R and D centres to achieve 'self reliance' in dental healthcare, as the country was lagging behind many others in providing quality dental care.

Inagurating Implantology at Army College of Dental Sciences (ACDS) here, Kalam said ''there is a need to network the dental centres located in different parts of the country to generate clinical database which will be useful for research.'' Stating that this type of connectivity would enable research on different dental problems pertaining to different regions in the country, he said specific research database could be used for suggesting preventive steps to the local community.

''Better use of tele-medicine for the dental care in the remote villages will enable the doctors to examine the patients using intra oral X-rays through digital sensors and consult through 'Virtual Dental Clinics' which can provide knowledge to the field centres,'' he added.

Suggesting that mobile clinics needed to spread all over the country, Dr Kalam said the dental care personnel posted to Army Units from ACDS could also provide dental care services to the rural population and provide proactive medicare among the villagers as a societal mission and it would enhance the bond between the civil and military personnels.

Advising the R and D centres to identify some areas of excellence and carry out systematic research in the area using the knowledge base of the traditional practitioners, the President said a case study should be conducted about the use of Neem tree material as a cost effective solution for promoting dental care in the villages.

UNI