Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Feb 25: Risking the lives of patients, hygiene in dental clinics and hospitals is not being maintained properly in Jammu and Kashmir. Sources told Early Times that rules are being disregarded in dental clinics and hospitals due to unhygienic thus posing a threat to patients. "The dentists and their subordinates do not sterilise the equipment properly," sources said.They said that some equipment cannot be cleaned and re-used safely and must be thrown away after each patient."But no such practice is being followed at most dentist clinics and hospitals," sources said. It has been observed that oral hygiene has mostly been ignored in the state. Majority of the people are unaware about the hazards of ignoring oral hygiene.
Although modern equipment is available in Dental Colleges in Srinagar and Jammu but in other hospitals, there are obsolete and old tools , they said. They said there was no checks to ensure prudence. "In some hospitals, a dentist sees around 50 patients without sterilising the tools," they said. The risk of patients catching blood-borne infections through inadequately equipment is also there. "Infection control practices in dentistry must be given the highest priority," an official said. The official said factors contributing to the steady rise in prevalence of periodontal disease include poor oral health awareness.
Oral health knowledge is considered to be an essential prerequisite for health-related behavior. The official said that no study has been done to assess the oral hygiene awareness in the state. Over the past 20 years a significant amount of emphasis has been laid on prevention of diseases rather than the treatment aspect. "Healthy teeth can last us a lifetime with the proper preventive dental care. Preventive oral health knowledge, behavior, and its practice are the important ways of keeping our teeth healthy," the official said. |
