Date:10/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/10/stories/2009011056350300.htm

Other States - Orissa

State urged to appoint dentists in all PHCs

Staff Reporter

IDA State chapter demands revival of dental council

BERHAMPUR: Dentists alleged that the State government was on one hand drastically neglecting the dental health in Orissa while it was allowing private institutions to open dental colleges indiscriminately.

The Indian Dental Association (IDA) has urged the State government to take up measures to safeguard the status of dental health and dental treatment in the State. Speaking to The Hindu, the newly elected president of the State wing of IDA, Dr Ashok Mohanty said it was high time for the government to take dental medical facility to village level by appointing dentists for Primary Health Centres in rural areas.

But the irony is that several sub-divisional hospitals in the State do not have any dental surgeons posted. The district headquarters hospitals have only one dentist. The association has demanded the Sgovernment to increase the number of dentists in district headquarter hospitals to at least two. Dr Mohanty said there was urgent need for revival of State dental council, which remains defunct since years.

According to him the State government has suddenly started allowing opening of private dental colleges indiscriminately with quite high number of seats. The association wanted the State government not to allow any more private dental colleges in the State and to reduce the seats of the existing private dental colleges to logical level.

The association has urged the State government to take action against the unlicensed quacks, who are involved in dental treatment and surgery without proper education and training. “Due to ignorance people think dental health to be trivial matter and visit these quacks aggravating their problems,” Dr Mohanty said. He added that in the State very few were aware of the fact that dental ailment can also turn fatal.

He added that tobacco consumption was on the rise in Orissa along with the rise in oral cancer cases. Around thirty per cent of the cancer cases in Orissa are suffering from oral cancer. “But it is a State where most citizens do not know that brushing teeth at night was an extreme necessity,” he said.