Growing quackery in dentistry: An indian perspective.

Dental disease restricts activities in school, work, and home and often significantly diminishes the quality of life for many children and adults, especially those who have low income or are uninsured. Though the overall dentist population ratio in India is 1:10,000, at present in rural India, one dentist is serving 2.5 lakhs of people. Only 15-20% of people in India are able to get dental services through national schemes, and 80-85% are spending money from their pockets, providing an ideal breeding ground for quackery into dental practice in India. Dental quacks cater to the lower-middle and lower socioeconomic classes that cannot afford qualified dental practitioners. A large number of people visiting these quacks seek care only when in pain, have a restricted budget, and are not very quality conscious. Dentistry has come a long way in the last one and a half century; today it is ranked as one of the most respected professions. It is incumbent upon dentists everywhere to protect this hard-earned reputation by weeding out quacks from among them. The government should urge fresh graduates to practice in rural areas and provide more incentives to them. Public health dentists should take the initiative of adopting more community-oriented oral health programs to increase the awareness among rural populations.

Effect of fresh fruit juices on pH of dental plaque.

Background: The concept of health has prevailed for centuries and the dietary habits are changing with modernization. “Healthy eating” is perceived to be important and fruit juices are promoted aggressively as a “Health drink”. Objectives: 1. To estimate endogenous pH and titratable acidity of four freshly prepared fruit juices. 2. To assess the effect of fruit juices on plaque pH in two groups. (DMFT=0 and DMFT≥1) Material and Methods: Forty Volunteers were divided into two groups based on caries experience. Endogenous pH and titratable acidity of fruit juices; pH of plaque samples collected at different time interval was assessed. Statistical analysis was done by using ANOVA and Tukey’s post hoc. Result: Endogenous pH of all fruit juices was acidic. Titratable acidity was maximum for sweet lime. In group B for Mango and Sweet lime plaque pH was below critical value till 30 minutes. Conclusion: All the fruit juices tested in present study were acidic in nature and reduced plaque pH below critical pH in caries group.