Dentists emphasize making oral health integral to the overall national health care mission, ET HealthWorld

New Delhi: On the World Endodontics Day, dentists urged the government and health care planners to make oral health a more integral priority of the overall national health care mission and also stressed on creating awareness among people to protect teeth from infection.

“People are aware of tooth decay, but few realize that tooth decay worsens over several months, penetrating deeper into the tooth and causing dental nerve pain and bone infection around the roots. This condition is known as apical periodontitis,” said the professor. Dr. Gopi Krishna. , General Secretary for the International Federation of Endodontic Associations (IFEA).

Dr Krishna, who is based in Chennai, stated that half of the adult population worldwide has at least one tooth with apical periodontitis. This surprising finding from a global study covering more than 40 countries, including India, was published last year in the International Endodontic Journal.

“Data from surveys conducted in various Indian cities revealed that close to two-thirds of India’s adult population has at least one tooth with apical periodontitis,” he said.

Dr Krishna stressed that a nationwide awareness campaign and interventions are needed to reduce the disease which would affect every alternative Indian in the coming decades, posing a huge burden on public and government health care expenditure.

“Efforts must be made to draw the attention of government and health care planners to make oral health a more integral priority of the overall national health care mission,” he said.

According to Dr Ajay Logani, a professor at the Center for Dental Education and Research (CDER) at AIIMS-Delhi, stated that the prevalence of dental caries in the Indian adult population is 62 percent, which is extremely high.

“If we do not treat caries at an early stage, then it will lead to apical periodontitis. A more reasonable long-term dental solution would be to save such teeth with endodontic procedures (root canal therapy) instead of access traditional of such extraction. Teeth.” said Dr. Logan.

IFEA and the Indian Endodontic Society (IES) are running a global campaign to improve awareness of this disease through a campaign on World Endodontic Day.

Dr Sanjay Miglani, the president of IES said that a nationwide coordinated program by more than 100 colleges and institutions across India is being conducted on October 16 to improve people’s awareness about this silent epidemic.

Periodic dental checkups and maintaining good oral hygiene are simple measures in preventing this disease and maintaining oral health, said Dr Sangeeta Talwar, former director of the Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences in Delhi.

Dentists and endodontists are capable of performing a wide range of predictable and science-backed root canal therapies, also known as endodontic procedures that save millions of teeth each year, she said.

  • Published on 16 Oct 2023 at 16:55 IST

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