The Hindu : Karnataka News : Full mouth dental implant gives this farmer a new life

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Wednesday, Oct 08, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Full mouth dental implant gives this farmer a new life

T.V. Sivanandan

Basavaraj of Madanahipparga village now enjoys everything that
he eats

GULBARGA: It is a new lease of life for Basavaraj (name changed), a 56-year-old farmer from Madanahipparga village in Aland taluk in Gulbarga district who had been facing problems with his false denture for the past six years. He now has permanent dental implants enabling him to enjoy everything he wants to eat.

Nobody would have dreamt of getting full mouth dental implants in a backward region such as Gulbarga which lacked specialised medical treatment facilities. But this was made possible for the patients who would otherwise have to get admitted in bigger centres of treatment in Hyderabad, Bangalore or Dharwad.

Ramesh Chowdhary, a young dentist who is pursuing his Ph.D programme with Malmo University in Sweden on new designs in implants, was the one who performed the first full mouth dental implant.

Dr. Chowdhary, who is a pioneer in dental implants in this region, is the first to start implant treatment procedure at the S. Nijalingappa Institute of Dental Sciences and Research run by the Hyderabad Karnataka Education Society in Gulbarga city.

Dr. Chowdhary told The Hindu that the full mouth dental implant was a common procedure in bigger centres, but in the remote regions where health facilities were lacking, the full mouth dental implantation is a new concept. The lack of awareness about the treatment and the need to stay for longer periods in hospitals away from their home town has made many requiring this treatment procedure to suffer silently using the cumbersome false dentures.

In the case of Mr. Basavaraj also, the patient was a silent sufferer for more than six years with upper and lower false dentures, unable to chew properly and enjoy the food. Added to this problem, his upper false dentures fractured twice in the past six years and he had regular ulceration of gums underneath the denture.

Explaining the procedures of full mouth dental implantation, Dr. Chowdhary said that this required at least five months treatment and the patient need not be admitted to the hospital and the entire treatment could be provided in the dental clinics.

In the case of Mr. Basavaraj, the procedure included drilling 15 dental implants with the help of which 24 teeth were placed in the mouth permanently — 12 each in the lower and upper jaws.

Dr. Chowdhary said this treatment procedure was common in European countries, and even in India, it was becoming a treatment of choice in replacing missing teeth, which is commonly known as “Third Fixed Dentition”.

According to the width and height of the bone available in the jaw portion, titanium-made dental implants are selected and surgically placed in the bone with specialised burs through specialised equipment. Dr. Chowdhary said that the implants can be placed from 15 to any age.

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