First Complete denture Camp in Kutch. Kundrodi Village. March 2014

Kutch - Kundrodi Complete Denture programme: The Beginning ..

                                                                   Dr. Rikin. A. Gogri

Greetings !

In the medical world, we always expect to be able to fix our patient’s problems in order to help them have a better life.  This is frequently interrupted by circumstances in the patient’s life that they are unwilling to change or simply cannot fix.  Those circumstances may be economical , social , or lack of facilities around. A visit to the Rural areas of kutch in Gujarat state of india clearly would lead to the observation of all of the above mentioned circumstances.

I feel priviledged and honoured to have been associated with Shri Bidada Sarvodaya Trust and its medical programmes since more than a decade , wherein we have had the opportunity to serve the most needy people in the state of Gujarat. The various activities of the trust have been well known and recognised and appreciated by people , with recognitions from even the President of the nation.

Over the years , there have been 40 annual medical camps and many more smaller monthly , quarterly or half yearly medical and surgical camps conducted by the institution. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of our chairman Shri Bachubhai Rambhia and all other trustees and volunteers associated with our monumental institution.

 According to a informal survey  or observations  we can say that we have over the years, every second geriatric person in kutch has multiple missing teeth and the percentage of people who are completely edentulous is alarmingly high. Not having teeth had a very bad effect on the well being of the individual right from low confidence , social stigma , lack of resources to get their teeth done ,financial crisis , improper food intake , improper digestion and thus a poor quality of life. Thus , this whole concept of conducting a complete denture programme was born so as to offer and give a better quality of life to these individuals.  It indeed seemed to be a herculean task to give a set of complete dentures to each and every individual

participating in the programme and that too in a limited time period. But thanks to the support we always have from our doctors , donors and volunteers , we were able to accomplish our mission and thus a new idea and a new concept was born.

The Programme:

Mr bachubhai rambhia , the chairman of our institute, as always , is supportive of each and every medical event that would benefit the people of kutch. A true role model for generations of doctors and volunteers.

Mr DevchandBhai Furia , Boston , USA has been the strongest pillar of support , and the concept of making dentures for the needy has been his idea and the whole programme has been conducted under his supervision throughout.

Mr Vijaybhai Chheda , the vice chairman of our trust , approved us a go ahead for conducting this landmark event.

Mr Dinesh M Chheda , he supported our programme right from the word go and was instrumental in making all the arrangements done at the base camp in kundrodi.We have been Truly blessed to have such supportive donors.

The Doctors and Volunteers:  the doctors and volunteers have been the heart and strength of our institution and any camp that we conduct or organise , we are always assured of smooth and efficient functioning. I would come to the list of the doctors and volunteers later on in the write up. Volunteers or social workers , what do we say… We're so proud of the women and men who comprise our volunteer pool! After all, they are the keys which make the ignition of our camps function.

 

The programme beginning:

Once the dates for the programme were scheduled and the venue finalised , we sent banners and leaflets in 15 surrounding villagesnear kundrodi  regarding the information about the complete denture programme that was scheduled to be held from 3^rd to 8^th of march.

An initial screening of patients was conducted by the local authorities , e.g , registering the names , address of the patients and mentioning the number of teeth present / missing  or duration of edentulous jaws( since how many years has the patient been without teeth). This helped us calculate and estimate the number of patients that would take the advantage of this project. Some 130 names were registered.

The Team:

The team comprised of 14 Doctors, 4 technicians , 4 volunteers and 2 dental assistants in all , including 2 prosthodontists , 4 senior dentists and 8 junior dentists.

All materials and equipment needed for fabrication of denture , taking various measurements was carried along from Mumbai , and the whole team together departed from Mumbai on the 3^rd of march 2014.

Day 1:

The inauguration of the programme was done by our chairman Shri Bachubhai Rambhia , Shri Vijaybhai Chheda , Shri Devchandbhai Furia and our donor Shri Dinesh M Chheda. The event was covered by almost all the local newspapers.

Primary impressions ( measurements) were taken for dentures

of 60 patients on the first day morning , followed by the final impressions in the afternoon , again followed by the vertical dimensions ( jaw relations) in the evening. It was pleasant and heartening to see all the patients wait till late in the evening without complaining. The team of doctors technicians and volunteers worked till late in the evening about 9.30 before ending the days work. The technicians then prepared the teeth setting and trials of dentures during the night and next day denture try-ins were taken for those 60 patients. It was the month of march and the weather gods weren’t too keen of providing a pleasant temperature. It was bright sunshine throughout and a temperature of around 36 degrees.

Day 2:

This was crazy. 80 new patients lined up for primary impressions and 60 patients of day1 came for their try ins. Was a very long day in office. Tiring but pleasing and satisfying. So by the end of day 2 , we had attended and prepared models and try ins for 140 patients. That itself was very satisfying for all of us. A lovely musical programme was organised by dineshbhai in the night , and after the event , the technicians got back to their job of preparing the try ins of day 2  patients.

 

Day 3:

Try ins and corrections for the previous 140 patients were done , and 25 new patients were also registered and their denture work started. By now , the word of mouth had spread like wild fire , with authorities and people from various places visiting the camp to have a look at the extravaganza that was taking place at kundrodi. Many people requested us for more such camps and their support whenever we conduct these camps.

Day 4:

Final try ins and adjustments and corrections of 165 patients during the day was done. Another striking and interesting thing that happened on day 4 was… that we received 65 new names of patients who wanted to register themselves and get their dentures prepared. Their names were registered and the patients were given assurances that they would be attended In the next camp that would be conducted in the month of august. By now , many newspapers carried over stories in their dailies , local politicans and authorities from neighbouring villages visited and saw the work that we had done in the past 3 days.

A few patients , had tears in their eyes , for they had never imagined that they would ever get dentures , they had never imagined that they would be able to eat properly , they had never imagined that they would smile again, the feel good factor was amazing and we signed off from kundrodi with a lot of memories with us.

Denture Delivery:

On reaching Mumbai , we processed and fabricated the denture try ins that we had brought and the dentures were ready to be delivered. Another team of 3 dentists , 1 technician and 2 volunteers went back for kundrodi to deliver the dentures to those 165 patients , witnessing the greatest of the great soul pleasing smiles that one would ever come across.

The pictures themselves tell the story.

We are looking forward to many more such programmes in kutch , one of which is planned in the month of august.

It was one of the great moments for the people of kutch , the doctors participating , the self less  service rendered by the volunteers and incredible hard work for the technicians who toiled day and night to make those patients smile better…again.

As Far as the junior doctors are concerned , they said that they learnt more in this programme than they could have managed in their dental school , because here , they treated patients of all different varieties, different psyche and a different level of understanding. From easy cases to complicated ones. That made it icing on the cake for them.

We hope that this programme continues for a long period of time , we look forward to conducting 2 such denture camps annually  and ofcourse serve the mankind in every possible way we can. We specially thank our trustees , donors and all the support staff for their cooperation.

Hope to scale more landmarks and make everyone smile…with a new set of teeth.. a smile that would come straight from the heart… Thank you.