Teams, each comprising of five commanding health care providers, equipped with the structured kit, carry out house to house visits to create awareness by using the “Institutional Questionnaires”, structured for holistic approach and “W.H.O (Dental) Survey Forms”, which help to obtain the data regarding the dental and medical health status of the individuals and their families.

People are also made aware of any existing social or individual health problems or hazards which need to be addressed.

Thus Post Graduate students, Interns and Under Graduate clinical students get exposed to the rural population and carry out epidemiological surveys, which help them to better understand the health status in neglected rural areas.

Street plays, dramas, folk dances and lectures are being used to effectively convey the ideas to the rural population (souks, markets and around Satellite Centres).

School dental health programmes:

Primary schools in the area are adopted and an oral and dental health awareness and treatment programme is conducted in association with Teachers and Parents.

Any required emergency treatment is carried out at the school and later the children are transported to the Institute for total oral and dental health care, if required.

Single Day Denture Camps:

For the first time in the world, we have formulated a concept of a “Single day denture camp” in which an edentulous patient (person devoid of any teeth) is diagnosed and provided with a new pair of denture in a treatment camp. (the maximum was 175 patients in a day)

This is a procedure which usually takes approximately seven clinical appointments in a regular Dental Clinic or Hospital. The patients who are provided with the complete dentures are followed up after 48 hours by revisiting the camp site and later at the Rural Satellite Centers or at our Institution.

The Faculty, Post Graduate students, Interns, Undergraduate Students and Paraclinical Personnel have participated and worked earnestly to undertake this project. The Nitte Education Trust supported the cause both financially and morally. All work has been carried out without sacrificing the prescribed teaching hours by the Apex bodies within the Institution.

With the implementation of the project “An Institutionalized approach for total health care for the rural population free of cost at the door step”, upholding the above objectives at A.B.Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences, I was successful to provide oral and dental health care to more than 15,00,000 rural population by using the best available treatment modalities. This project has helped me to extend our services to the rural population who don’t have awareness, accessibility, availability or affordability basic health facilities.