ABOUT US

“Comprehensive training and care focused on children”

The Department provides training in comprehensive oral health care for pediatric patients. The mission of our pediatric dental clinic reflects our belief that children deserve the best of oral health care. Our clinics provide comprehensive oral health examinations, teeth cleaning, fluoride treatments, sealants, restorative procedures (fillings, crowns, etc.), extractions and minor surgical procedures, space-maintainers, athletic mouth guard, interceptive orthodontic when applicable, and urgent care (trauma, infection, etc.).

UNIQUE FEATURES

• A child friendly reception area which is a ‘visual treat for children’.
• Facility for provision of dental care under general anesthesia for very young, extremely uncooperative and disabled children.
• Special Care Clinic for Diagonosis and management of Individuals with special health care needs.
• Strong Emphasis on prevention of Oro-dental diseases in children by providing preventive procedures and appropriate parent and child counseling.
• Unique School dental clinics with mobile dental van for schools around Rathinamangalam for providing basic dental care for children in the school premises itself.
• The department runs an exclusive school health program for underprivileged children of schools around Rathinamangalam.

ADVANCED TREATMENTS (CORE COMPETENCIES):

• Rotary Endodontic- treatment of primary, young permanent and permanent teeth
• Management of harmful oral habits and malocclusions in children
• Full mouth rehabilitation under chair-side and general anesthesia
• Interceptive, preventive orthodontics and Myofunctional therapy
• Dental care for Special Health Care needs children
• Esthetic pediatric dentistry
• Preventive dentistry.

Revamping of the Teaching Skills:

The preceptors of the department are continuously enriching their skills which are necessary to engage the scholarly activities. They are involved in development of professional activities, designing and development of curriculum and creating eminent scholars, clinicians, leaders and efficient administrators for the future.

Unique teaching methodology was followed in both theoretical and clinical skill based learning.

1. PROBLEM BASED LEARNING: Topics are discussed as problems/conditions and students discuss the clinical features and work out a treatment plan for the same.
2. EVIDENCE BASED DENTISTRY- Students discuss the current concepts with the help of articles and other E- resources
3. FLIPPED CLASSROOM -PPT given to the students 1 week prior to the lecture session and students are asked to learn the basic concepts of the topic.
4. MICROTEACHING - Students are divided into small groups of 5-6 students per faculty and small topics are taken by students for the other students in that group.
5. GROUP ACTIVITY - Students divided into small groups and asked to solve a set of MCQs regarding the topic before and after the session.

Total Publications: 52

TREATMENT DONE

PREVENTIVE DENTISTRY

Preventive dentistry is an exclusive specialization in the field of pediatric dentistry that targets the prevention of dental diseases in children .The treatment performed in this specialization includes scaling, fluoride applications and pit and fissure sealants. Recent materials like Silver Diamine Fluoride are also being used.

SPECIAL CARE DENTISTRY

Children with special needs are those who have certain disability that restricts them in performing daily life activities .We the pediatric dentists have the esteemed responsibility of providing comprehensive oral health care to patient with special health care needs .

FULL MOUTH REHABLITATION UNDER GENERAL ANAESTHESIA

General anesthesia (GA) is utilized for patients to provide comprehensive and high quality dental care when conventional dental treatment is not an option. Routine dental procedures for children are performed under GA for various reasons, including for patients of a very young age, uncooperative patients with complex medical/physical/mental conditions, with a need for extensive treatment.

MINOR SURGICAL PROCEDURES

Minor surgical procedures like frenectomy, operculectomy, splinting of traumatized teeth are carried out at chair side under local anaesthesia .

RESTORATIVE DENTISTRY

Restoration of carious lesions in primary and young permanent teeth continues to be one of the important services that the pediatric dentist provide for children in order to avoid future complicated treatment that the child may require. Esthetic restoration of traumatized young permanent anterior teeth is also done

PULP THERAPY

Pulp therapy (pulpotomy , pulpectomy ) is one of the significant treatment which is performed by the pediatric dentist for a pulpally inflamed primary tooth in order to preserve the tooth in the arch to hold space for the erupting permanent tooth .

ROOT CANAL TREATMENT , APEXIFICATION , APEXOGENESIS

Root Canal Treatment is performed in pulpally inflamed permanent teeth with complete root formation. Apexification , Apexogenesis is performed in pulpally inflamed young permanent teeth with incomplete root formation using advanced bioactive materials like MTA and Biodentine .

STAINLESS STEEL CROWNS AND ANTERIOR ESTHETIC CROWNS

Stainless steel crowns are full coronal restorations which maintain the integrity of pulpally treated primary and young permanent teeth and are also indicated for teeth with multi surface caries. Anterior esthetic crowns like strip crowns , poly carbonate and acrylic crowns are given to maintain the esthetics and function of traumatized and carious teeth which are treated pulpally .

PREVENTIVE AND INTERCEPTIVE ORTHODONTICS

Early interventions of transient malocclusion in the mixed dentition period are treated by procedures like serial extraction , myofunctional therapy and dentofacial orthopedics .

HABIT BREAKING APPLIANCES

Deleterious oral habits like thumb sucking , mouth breathing , lip biting , tongue thrusting etc which hamper the child ‘s dentofacial growth are treated by removable and fixed habit breaking appliances .

SPACE MAINTAINERS

Removable and fixed space maintainers are appliances that are given to patients with premature loss of primary teeth in order to preserve the space in the arch for the erupting permanent teeth. Special appliance like Gropers appliance is given for esthetic and functional rehabilitation of primary anterior teeth.

EXTRACTION

Extraction of non restorable, retained and mobile primary teeth is done under local anaesthesia .