The increase in life expectancy due to various medical advances and health awareness has made it imperative for the health care world to identify and look into the health needs of geriatric patients. Home bound dental service is one of the greatest areas of need for the immobile elderly and also for the patients who are bed ridden with injury or serious ailment. Unfortunately, despite great advancement in medical science, there continues to exist a wide gap between the amount of elderly and bed ridden patients that need home bound dental care and the healthcare workforce available to provide it. Dr. Gunjan Gawai and Dr. Sarika Mawale of ‘Your Smile Home Dental Service’ from Kharghar, Navi Mumbai are trying to make a difference in the lives of elderly and immobile patients by providing dental services at home.

“Me and Sarika have been practicing together for nearly two years. I graduated in 2010 and worked under senior dentists for few years and started my own clinic in 2014 ‘Your Smile Multi Specialty Centre’ at Kharghar. Sarika has an experience of nearly 15 years and joined my clinic as an Associate Dentist two years back,” informs Dr. Gunjan.

The idea to start home bound dental services came up when both the doctors were told about the needs of geriatric and bed ridden patients by their own clients.

“We used to come across people who had parents or in-laws who were physically unable to travel to our centre and ended up suffering from immense tooth pain. A denture usually takes 5 to 6 sittings and a senior citizen would find it extremely difficult to travel each time. That’s when this idea came through that if they cannot come to the dentist why not get the dentist to their doorstep? As we plunged into it case by case we realized that this is the need of the hour for individuals who are handicapped, paralyzed, hospitalized, bedridden and heavily pregnant,” says Dr. Gunjan.

The duo started reaching out to people through pamphlets, flyers and word of mouth publicity. “At first people were unable to imagine that we can provide them a dental clinic at the comfort of their home. But for a person who has a bedridden family member, it has proven a boon and the response has been tremendous,” adds Dr. Sarika.

“We have a specialized portable dental unit that we carry in our centre’s vehicle especially assigned for this venture. It has a mountable dental chair; dental unit where we attach our hand pieces; dental trolley; portable dental X ray; patient trays and instruments while maintaining the sterilization standards. Our team, comprising of four members (a dentist, a specialist dentist and two dental assistants) are trained to set a complete dental set up within minutes in whatever small space available,” says Dr. Gunjan.

All kinds of treatments from consultation; X- ray; cleaning, restorative fillings extraction root-canals, dentures can be done exactly as done in the clinic, they inform.

“Currently, we are charging the same amount that we would to individual’s coming to our dental clinic. However, there are certain groups or individuals for whom we reserve our services free of cost like old age homes, orphanages, senior citizen homes etc.,” adds Dr. Gunjan.

The doctors are looking for social awareness and other campaigns for better exposure.

This novel initiative was started in July this year and within a short span, it has received tremendous response. “Last month, two major treatments were carried out on two bed ridden elderly patients. It gives us immense satisfaction when we see the smiles on their faces and we are able to give them relief from their pain,” unanimously say the duo.

“It is indeed a very noble and praiseworthy initiative by both the doctors. The home dental service to the patients who cannot walk down the dental clinic due to their physical disability, is indeed a boon,” beamingly says D.R. Singh, an elderly patient from Kharghar.