Dr Prasanth V
Editor, IPS Kerala
Right from the first day in any dental school, teachers introduce students various branches of dentistry. Prosthodontics is often regarded as the noblest branch of dentistry because it deals with the replacement of lost or damaged tissues. That’s the essence behind the saying, ‘GOD CREATE, PROSTHODONTISTS RECREATE’. Initially dental students get excited when they see the pictures of good quality maxillofacial prostheses. I still remember many medical students who came for one month dental posting getting surprised seeing the various photos which decorated the walls of my department at Government Dental College, Trivandrum. Life in the pre-clinical lab introduces dental students to various steps in the fabrication of removable prostheses. As they enter the phase of clinical training one more aspect of Prosthodontics will get exposed. Completely edentulous aged men and women smiling widely as soon as they receive a denture will satisfy anybody. For the first time they realize Prosthodontics is not all about making money, it really means much more than an outsider can ever imagine. Training in Prosthodontics labs and clinics sharpens the overall clinical skill of a dental student. A post graduate student is expected to become a master in all aspects of prosthetic rehabilitation.
Prosthodontics is passing through an interesting phase now. Broad horizon of Prosthodontics has become increasingly narrower. Implantology became the synonym of Prosthodontics. Everything else became unimportant. Prosthodontics and Implantology conferences became indistinguishable, only names differentiated them. Modern day mentors who replaced first generation legendary teachers focussed more on Implantology. One of the post graduate students I met recently told that his first patient case was a ‘single tooth implant restoration’, he didn’t do a single removable prosthesis before that and he got that patient even before completing the required pre-clinical exercises! Am afraid, we are sending a wrong message and we are polluting the system in the worst possible way. Not only that, this approach is creating an identity crisis for our branch. We have reduced ourselves to Implantology. But Periodontology and Maxillofacial Surgery expanded by adding Implantology to their existing field of operation. Full mouth prophylaxis is still a very important procedure in Periodontics, alveoloplasty is still trained in Maxillofacial Surgery with adequate importance.
This in no way is intended to lessen our focus on Implantology. We should remember that Implantology is an unavoidable ‘add-on’ to the conventional skills. Many of us are doing very well in Implant practice because we all were trained well in basic Prosthodontics. We shouldn’t undermine the importance of a solid base while constructing a mansion. Good that Dental Council of India and various universities are modifying the curriculum according to the modern day needs. But that has to be a careful and well balanced exercise. Dental schools should mould the basic Prosthodontic skills of an undergraduate student. Postgraduate mentors should give an impression that basic Prosthodontic skill is an unavoidable pre requirement of a good Implantologist. Indian Prosthodontic Society should intervene in the conduct of national and state wise conferences and post graduate conventions. These shall be a logical time division for these scientific deliberations, with adequate time share given to all branches of Prosthodontics.
As long as Implantology doesn’t belong exclusively to us, shrinking ourselves to that field alone won’t help us. The very concept of ‘prosthodontically driven implantology’ won’t hold any sense if we lessen our focus on removable, fixed and maxillofacial Prosthodontics. If we don’t change our perception, 50 years from now dental students may read this sentence during their first year undergrad life, ‘once upon a time there was a branch of dentistry called Prosthodontics which later was amalgamated to implantology, a branch co-owned by Periodontics and Maxillofacial Surgery”.