The History Of Dental Quacks In India
Dr. R. H. Ahmed was perhaps the first certified dental practitioner in India. He enrolled in the University of Iowa School of Dentistry, earning his dental degree in 1915. Dr. Ahmed then worked in the Forsyth Dental Infirmary for Children in Boston, Massachusetts, until 1918. In 1919, he returned to India to open a dental practice in Calcutta.
In 1920, Dr. Ahmed founded the First Dental College of India, which was financed by the New York Soda Fountain in Calcutta. Dr. Ahmed published the First Student’s Handbook on Operative Dentistry in 1928. And he tried his best even in that time of 1940s to remove dental quackery and also to relocate them.
1947 China Town – Dental Center Of India
During the independence and just after independence dental practice in India was an unregulated market. Calcutta used to be hub of these practitioners. Most of them were Chinese as dentistry was treadionally practiced by them. They used to make good money. Soon many Indians learned the craft. That time there were no regulations on dental practice. Rich aristocrats used to go to long time working dental quakes and the other poorer section used to go to other Indian Quacks.
The quacks of that time used to have a degree called RIMP (Registered Indian Medical Practitioner). But officially there was no such degree. Most of the Indian quacks that time were either barber, monks or blacksmiths.
With time dentist act was formulated and gradually dentistry became a full fledged stream. But unregulated dentistry kept on prospering.
See Next : Why dental quackery still persists ? What are the ground reasons ?
What Is The Reason Of Wide Spread Dental Quackery ?
Tajinder pal : A quack in Punjab border area says – I mostly provide service to rural areas. I go to the most remote villages where no government doctor will go. There I go once in a month and provide dental care to all the villagers and tribes and outcasts. They can’t go to the city or afford prices of dental clinic. For them, I am the healer. If I don’t treat them, there is no one else to treat them.
image source : youtube.com
India is a vast country. Country of more than 25 states and 15 languages and more than 20,000 villages. The most serious reason for prevailing dental quackery right from the days of independence –
The absence of primary health-care approach in Dentistry.
Yes, it’s the most simple yet the most crucial factor.
Unequal & Uneven Geographic distribution of Dental Colleges All Over India.
Its not about how many dental colleges are there.
It’s about how the dental colleges are distributed.
Most of the colleges in each of the Indian states are concentrated in the Urban centres.
So cities are becoming the hub for dental treatment.
Check out this quack dental clinic in a remote village at Bangladesh border.
In case of dental treatments they have no option but to go to such clinics. image source : Dr. Baig
So what will a poor farmer with a painful tooth do ?
Will he spend his hard earned money to first go to city and then spend additional money to get the tooth extracted or filled by coming multiple times.
“NO”
He is forced to go the nearest located dental quack and get it done.
This is a very simple thing that no Govt. seems to Understand.
You want quacks to be eradicated then open more dental colleges and distribute them properly in the geographic Indian targeting rural areas in particular.
