Visiting your dentist twice a year may cut pneumonia risk

Good oral hygiene can reduce bad bacteria in the mouth and thus decrease the risk of developing pneumonia, a research has found. 

Pneumonia is an infection that inflames air sacs in one or both lungs, which may fill with fluid. The infection is more common among older people and those with conditions such as AIDS or lung disease.

The study found that people who never get dental checkups had an 86 per cent greater risk of pneumonia than those who visit the dentist twice a year.

“There is a well-documented connection between oral health and pneumonia, and dental visits are important in maintaining good oral health,” said lead author Michelle Doll, Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in the US.

Jaipur Dental College officials put on APO over negligence

Jaipur: The Dental College principal and hospital superintendent were put on APO (awaiting posting orders) by health minister Rajendra Rathore during his inspection of the college on Tuesday morning.

The incident took place when Rahtore paid a surprise visit to Dental Hospital at Shatri Nagar on morning; he was baffled over the lack of facilities at the college and put principal and hospital superintendent on APO. The decision was taken after the minister met the patients and their relatives and expressed dissatisfaction over the state of affairs at the hospital.

NEET 2016: Petition filed regarding vacant MBBS and BDS seats in Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will hear the petition regarding the vacant MBBS and BDS seats in Supreme Court on October 28. The petition has asked the top court to fill all seats in all medical and dental colleges by way of centralised counselling and on the basis of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) ranking of the candidates. The petitioner Dr Gulshan Garg, from Sankalp Trust said that they have calculated the vacant seats listed on various states websites. Approximately 5000 seats are not filled.

The reasons cited for the petition stated that since due to the situation created by the introduction of NEET and late finalization of modalities of the counselling processes for admission to medical and dental colleges, most of the seats in various states could not be filled by September 30, 2016. The Supreme Court will hear a plea on this matter on October 28. The case will be represented by senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

Quack 'practising' since 8 months arrested in Jalandhar, Punjab

KOLHAPUR: Police on Tuesday arrested a man from Punjab for allegedly "practising" as a dentist for eight months without a proper licence at Bambawade village in Shahuwadi taluka, around 50km from here.

Accused Sardar Swaransingh is originally from Jalandhar in Punjab. He failed to provide licence or proper certificate supporting his practice when police asked him to do so.

Police said Swaransingh admitted that he worked as an assistant to a dentist at his native place in the past.

According to police, he used to ask passengers at ST bus stand and other transit places whether they are suffering from dental problems. Police also found some surgical equipment, medicines and dummy teeth made of acrylic or fibre on him at the Bambawade ST stand.

Joint research in oral healthcare announced

KOLKATA: Guru Nanak Institute of Dental Sciences and Research (GNIDSR) - an institute under the aegis of JIS Group Educational Initiatives, IIT-KGP and IIEST (Shibpur) today has taken a humanitarian step to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in order to conduct interdisciplinary research in contemporary fields of oral healthcare.

The occasion was graced by Chandrima Bhattacharya, Chairperson, West Bengal

 Medical Services, who graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Also stalwarts of the Indian Oral and Dental industry and academia as well as other eminent personalities such as S.K. Bhattacharya, Deputy Director IIT - KGP; Ajoy Roy, Director, IIEST Shibpur; Suranjan Das, Vice Chancellor, Jadavpur University and Dibyendu Mazumder, President - Dental Council of India, R.R. Paul, Deputy Director and In-Charge (R&D), GNIDSR and T.K. Pal, Principal, GNIDSR were present for the commemoration of MoU signing occasion.

Man doubts his dentist after he didn't recommend the toothpaste every doctor recommends on TV

New Delhi. A man in his mid-thirties doubted his dentist and refused to buy the prescribed toothpaste from a neighborhood medical store, when he found out the brand was not one of the many recommended by dentists in TV advertisements.

When News reporter (NR) contacted Mr. Kumar, he flashed a nervous smile and narrated the incident.

FN: Mr. Kumar, what made you to visit a dentist?

Kumar: I have been suffering from bad toothache for the past few months. My friends complained to me that they have been suffering from bad breath, my bad breath, for the past few years. When the bad breath had become unbearable, my friends pooled in money and sent me to a dentist.

NR: Please tell us what happened at the dentist.

Kumar: Everything was good there. The dentist brought back the colour of my teeth from utter black to almost white. He used twice the amount of cement to fix the cavities compared to what he used to fix his damaged wall, he told me.

NR: Was the fee too high?

Kumar: The fee was phenomenal. The dentist did have to do a couple of extractions. Along with that he extracted every last coin from my wallet also. Tell you what. the last extraction was more painful.

NR: All good. What made you doubt his credentials?

Kumar: When he wrote a prescription for my toothpaste, I had my first doubt. When the medical store guy gave me a toothpaste with a name not even close to any highly recommended toothpaste in TV. How can accredited doctors on TV be wrong? How can bollywood actors and ‘chief smile officers’ be wrong?

NR: So, what did you finally do?

Kumar: I went back to the clinic and asked him to show the credentials. The doctor smiled and had shown all the certificates. Then he asked me something unusual. He challenged me to get verified credentials of at least one dentist appearing in the TV advertisements.

Dentists want letter D added to Kerala's ABC (Ayurveda, Backwaters and Culture)

Kerala has long considered Ayurveda,Backwaters and Culture (ABC) as its USP. Dental specialists in the state now want to add letter D to it in an attempt to tap the potential of dental tourism.

A group of dental surgeons have set up a `Dental Holiday Knowledge Centre' in Fort Kochi, to promote the concept among tourists.

India, Singapore and Thailand account for 90% of the medical tourism in Asia. "India ranks far below Thailand in dental tourism even though cities like Kochi have the necessary infrastructure to provide exceptional dental care at much cheaper rates," said Dr Seby Varghese, founder of Dentela Foundation and secretary of Indian Dental Association, Nedumbassery. According to the research undertaken by Sindhu Joseph, an assistant professor with Kannur University , who has specialised in tourism management, 24.5% of the total medical tourists visiting Kerala can be credited to dental tourism. "Around 40% of all medical tourists visiting Kerala also look for leisure. As of now, the leading source of information regarding dental service in the international market is word of mouth. If you exclude NRIs the figure is 24.5%," said Sindhu.

"I came to India specifically to see my daughter, who was staying in Fort Kochi.She has had previous experience with Dr Seby Varghese. I need some work done on my front teeth so I took her word for it and visited his office", said Deborah Moe, a tourist who visited Kochi from the US this year.

Dr Seby says dental tourism has not been given an adequate platform to promote itself. "Most promotional opportunities like travel mart are dominated by large medical corporations who only promote themselves," said Dr Seby .

He said dental tourism should be promoted like ayurveda. "In Thailand, dental tourism is uniquely promoted by the government. It has high online visibility and significant promotional presence in road shows and conventions. In Kochi, we have one of Asia's leading dental lab facilities, which is catering not just to the market demands in Kochi but to foreign nations as well. We have the infrastructure, all we need is the promotion," said Dr Seby .

Doctors say dental implants, tooth alignment and smile makeovers are the most frequently requested procedures. Getting dental implants done in Thailand can cost up to Rs 1 lakh, while the same can be done in Kochi for just Rs 55,000.

"The work I had done on my teeth was exceptional," said Deborah.

The knowledge centre in Fort Kochi, which is set to open in October, will only admit clinics and centres that are approved by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH). "Ayurveda marred its reputation due to malpractices by a few institutions, we don't want the same to happen to the dental health industry ," said Dr Seby.

Tags:dental tourism in india, dental tourism in kerala,cost of dental treatment in india for foreign patient

"Three years condensed course of MBBS after BDS to practice general medicine" Dr Mazumdar

Nagpur: Dental Council of India (DCI) of India has been trying to stem the mushrooming of dental colleges in the country. Council is ensuring new dental colleges come up only in association with an existing government medical college.

Dr Dibyendu Mazumdar, DCI president told the council was trying its best to prevent new colleges in private sector. "What is the use of more colleges without any quality education and employment? Hence DCI has brought out a regulation of allowing a student to go for a three years' condensed course of MBBS after BDS. This will qualify them to also practice general medicine," he said.

BROKEN FILE TERROR

Indian dentists are abandoning their profession for BPOs, this startup wants to change this

Fact: 30,000 dentists who graduate from dental colleges annually have no industry waiting to hire them.

Most of them end up joining their seniors or faculty members in practice, earning as little as Rs 5,000 a month. The market scenario demands that they set up their own practice, which costs no less than Rs 10-12 lakh in initial capital investment, taking easily five to seven years to pay off.

Founders of MobiDent: Vivek Madappa (L) Dr. Devaiah Mapangada

Further, not having any godfather in the industry makes it even more difficult, because dental colleges teach students to practise dentistry and not to set up a practice.

50 per cent seats for dental courses lying vacant post NEET

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) has led to a situation wherein seats for the BDS course are lying vacant. Facing crisis, the Dental Council of India (DCI) has written to the Union health ministry for lowering the percentile to fill up these vacant seats. Earlier, the government had decided that students will be admitted to medical and dental courses only through NEET.

DROP FROM FULL OCCUPANCY TO HALF

The dental colleges were witnessing full occupancy for the BDS course. But now the colleges are finding it difficult to fill even 50 per cent seats. These dental colleges have to complete the admission process by October 7.

Dental college student commits suicide by hanging self in Mathura

A 22-year-old student of a dental college allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in his hostel room in Mathura, police said. Gamang Angu, a resident of Itanagar, was a third-year student of K D Dental College. Angu allegedly committed suicide on Thursday by hanging himself to the ceiling fan of his hostel room, Senior Superintendent of Police Bablu Kumar said. In the suicide note addressed to his parents, Angu said he blames himself for his death and no one else is responsible for it, Kumar said.

5 dental myths that may be hurting your health

Research shows that your teeth can speak volumes about your overall health, so it’s important to be informed when it comes to taking care of your mouth.

Dr. Manny Alvarez, senior managing health editor for FoxNews.com, recently sat down with Dr. Gerry Curatola, founder of Rejuvenation Dentistry in New York City to debunk some common dental myths that could be hurting your health.

Sugar is the main cause of tooth decay.
We’ve all heard it growing up: Sugar will rot your teeth. But while sugar can lead to cavity formation – as well as a variety of other health maladies – it’s not the real culprit when it comes to tooth decay.

"This is a myth in a sense because sugar, while being 'the gasoline in the tank' is not the cause of tooth decay. It's actually acids from bacteria that have gone to the dark side,” Curatola told FoxNews.com. “We talk about good bugs and bad bugs; bad bugs are actually an unhealthy expression of natural bacteria in the mouth.”