ACTIVITY

The routine activity of our department is: diagnosis of patients with dental complaints (Oral Diagnosis Section); diagnosis, management and prevention of those oral pathoses that do not need mechanical or surgical means of treatment (Oral Medicine Section); and routine and special radiographic procedures and interpretation (Oral & Maxillo-facial Radiology Section).

Being a department in a teaching institute, all these activities go hand in hand with undergraduate training programmes. The undergraduate training includes lecture classes and clinical training. The objectives of this programme are:

  1. To make the students efficient in the oral diagnostic process.

  2. To make the students efficient in intra-oral radiographic techniques and processing.

  3. To make the students efficient in interpretation of radiographic images as an aid to dental diagnosis and treatment planning.

  4. To make the students sufficiently aware of scope of Oral Medicine and specialized imaging techniques.


We also endeavor to provide continuing education to practitioners and clinicians of other specialities of dentistry; and updates to staff and postgraduate students of our speciality. Dr. Shailesh Lele (Professor & Head of the Department) made seven such presentations in the last two years:

  1. "Computers in Public Health Dentistry" at the IV National Conference of IAPHD, Davangere, 1998.

  2. "Computer-Aided-Education" at the X National Conference of Indian Academy of Oral Medicine & Radiology, Mangalore, 1998.

  3. "Digital Imaging in Dentistry" at the II Continuing Education Programme organized by the BEA Dental Colleges Alumni Association, Davangere, 1999.

  4. "Digital Imaging in Dentistry" at the Krupa Continuing Dental Education Wing, Bangalore, 1999.

  5. "X-ray Tube Head- The Inside Out Story" at the XI National Conference of Indian Academy of Oral Medicine & Radiology, Navi Mumbai, 1999.

  6. "Networking in Dental Education" at College of Dental Sciences, Davangere, on 31.03.2000

  7. "Critical Appraisal of a Topic" at College of Dental Sciences, Davangere and SDM Dental College, Dharwad, April & June 2000.

  8. "Digital Imaging in Endodontics" at the National Endodontic Workshop at College of Dental Sciences, Davangere on 25.11.2000.

 

A 2-days speciality update programme 'Hands-on' Course on Oral Digital Radiography & Photography was conducted in 1998 with great success. The programme was aimed at introducing the concept of digital imaging- a novelty in those days.

The programme consisted of a lecture on the basics of digital radiography and photography; its applications in oral imaging; followed by Q and A session. All the participants were then demonstrated use of the oral digital radiography and photography system that the department uses. This was followed by all the participants handling the system and getting a 'Hands-on' experience by capturing oral digital radiographs and photographs. Other methods of digitizing analogous images and digital image manipulation techniques were also demonstrated and their pros and cons discussed.

A valedictory, held in the end, awarded participation certificates and presented the participants with printouts of the images captured during the course. Feedback on the organization and academic merits of the course was gathered through a questionnaire.

A Photo Tour of the 'Hands-on' Course