By Sanu George, IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala is facing an unusual crunch. Advances in dental science have reduced tooth extraction and as a result, dentistry students don’t have enough “teeth” for practical experiments!
Hundreds of students are on the waiting lists of dental clinics across the state to “take possession of extracted teeth” for practical lessons.
Earlier, there was no demand for extracted teeth because the state had just three dental colleges, all managed by the government. But with the professional education sector opening up a few years ago, a dozen private dental colleges have mushroomed in the state now.
As a result, the intake of fresh students has shot up from 120 to nearly 900 every year.
Speaking to IANS, Giby Paul, a professor at a private dental college here, said students conduct practical experiments with extracted teeth in the second year.
“With advancement in dental science, there is a shortage of extracted teeth. Another reason is the increase in the number of dental students, both in Kerala and in the border districts of Tamil Nadu, where a large number of students from Kerala study,” Paul said.
Suppliers are, however, cashing in on the shortage by flooding the market with artificial teeth. “A full set of artificial teeth costs Rs.3,000. It is good business,” said a supplier of dental products.
But Sinu James, a student of dentistry who has just completed her pre-clinical trials, said the quality of artificial teeth is poor compared to good natural human teeth.
“First, we buy a set and then we buy loose teeth for the pre-clinical trials. Ideally, dental students should work on natural teeth. But it is difficult to get natural teeth with increasing demand and declining supply,” the student said.
Jancy Joseph, who has been running her own dental clinic here for over a decade, said she gets regular requests for teeth.
“Now I maintain a list and depending on the availability I collect teeth and distribute it on a first-come-first-serve basis. Here again, these students require good quality teeth and not any extracted one,” Jancy said.
With dental tourism picking up in Kerala and an increasing number of foreigners coming for dental treatment, students can now look forward to a variety of teeth and also compare the strength of an Indian tooth with a foreign one!