Source: Rajesh Rajput on Unsplash

It’s a usual Monday. Mira gets up and gathers the courage to beat the Monday blues and gets ready to go to her workplace. No, she can’t take the day off, not because she does not want to, but because deep down she knows that taking an unnecessary leave is also allowing certain individuals to suffer painful nights and insomnia. Welcome to the guilt trip of 60% of doctors in the nation. Mira is one of the victims of the same – ‘The over-burdened guilt-ridden lot’ but still doing their work with utmost honesty, empathy, and dedication. The greatest reward that matters to them is that one thankful smile that a patient radiates just before leaving. That satisfaction is the driving force to go to the place where no healthy person wishes to go willingly – THE HOSPITAL.

Nevertheless, this article is not based on Mira’s story, it is about Vanya. A four-year-old innocent child that Mira notices shrieking and crying at the top of her voice just outside her Dental Department on the same day. It doesn’t scare Mira, maybe all these years of being a pediatric dentist have trained her how to be calm amongst the chaos ;) What better example of it than handling a petrified child who loathes you only because you studied for 10 years and wear a white apron. The reason being the moment he/she came into this world that white coat monster was the first face it saw smiling while it was crying and since then this monster meets the child only to smile and inject it with vaccines. SORRY MATE!! But trust me we are good humans.

Rather than waiting for the parents to drag the child inside and cause more trauma, Mira decides to go out in the waiting room and talk to them. But the first thing she does before talking to the child is to remove the cloak of terror- THE WHITE APRON.

She addresses the child with a simple greeting and asks the scared girl in a very calm tone – “Hi dear? Are you scared of going to the doctor? Well, don’t be, because I am not the doctor. I have locked the bad doctor inside. See! I am not wearing the white coat.” Vanya hesitantly peeks at the doctor, her one hand on her mother’s waist clinging on like a baby monkey and wiping her tears with the other. Before she could say anything the overindulgent mother speaks- “She doesn’t talk much, has forgotten to smile, so less confident, and doesn’t interact with other children, only with family members. Is she normal? “

Mira listens to the mother and silently observes the child. “Does she eat a lot of sweets?” She asks the mother. The mother immediately replies, "Oh! Yes, Doc, she loves sweets, in fact, she can have them all day."

Mira knew what the problem was immediate. She remained calm and started interacting with the child. She took her to the play area of the dental ward and showed her a colossal mirror. As soon as Vanya came in front of the mirror, she tightened her lips, as if hiding the truth from herself and the world. Mira started talking to Vanya and cracked a few jokes. Vanya immediately burst into laughter and Mira could see clearly what she had expected. Deep cavities in her front teeth had made her teeth black. THE MYSTERY OF THE STOLEN SMILE WAS RESOLVED!! When Mira told that one of the reasons for the lack of confidence of their child could be the teeth of her parents, they were themselves shocked and perplexed.

The Story of Vanya is basically the story of millions of children in India who have cavities and either miss school due to pain in their teeth or are shy and diffident to interact in school. Imagine nobody thought this could be a reason to demoralize the future of our nation.

HOW TO SOLVE IT?

Like the problem, the solution is very simple and nothing new that you might not be familiar with from your childhood. If we take Vanya’s example - If parents were careful in following these simple tips and getting a regular check-up done from the beginning, the cavities wouldn’t have caused so much loss.

Simple tips to maintain that bright smile on your child’s face and give them a happy, confident life-

  1. Inculcate the habit of brushing twice: For children less than six years of age, parents should brush their teeth and make sure the child watches them while they brush their own teeth too.
  2. Clean the infant's gum pad after night feeding: A large number of issues can start at a very young age. Cleaning the gum pads after a night of feeding, or cleaning the teeth before sleeping is very crucial.
  3. Discourage bottle feeding at night: Milk itself contains starch which can cause cavities. So rather than a child sleeping with a milk bottle try to give him/her water in the bottle after milk so that it automatically rinses the mouth.
  4. Do not give honey-dipped pacifiers: They are a very common cause of cavities
  5. The dentist should be seen as soon as the first tooth erupts in the oral cavity and every 6 months thereafter.

Back to Vanya’s story, if parents of the child had brought the child for dental visits at an early age, so much of the damage caused could have been prevented and treated. The concept of Dental Home, where the child visits the dentist in the first year of life, is new in India and is urgently required.

THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN LIES IN OUR HANDS AND IT BECOMES OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO NOT NEGLECT THE ORAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN.

HAVE A HEALTHY DAY AND DO NOT FORGET TO TAKE CARE OF THAT ONE THING WHICH IS VERY CONTAGIOUS AND CAN LIGHT UP THE WORLD OF OTHERS AROUND YOU -

YOUR BRIGHT SMILE

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