Provision of Dental Trauma Care in a Remote and Rural Setting

Abstract

Advanced oral surgery such as the treatment of fractures of the mandible is difficult to be performed in rural and remote settings. Within India, the bulk of the population reside in the countryside rather than in urban settings, leading to a lack of provision of secondary care services. Within the Chitrakoot Project, a modern, fully equipped dental surgery has evolved, which with the assistance of Indian specialists from secondary care, and visitors from abroad, has become a rural clinic capable of treating mandibular fractures using maxillomandibular fixation. The concept of training for remote and rural dental surgeons is explored, and three cases are chronicled. The experience in Chitrakoot is something which could be usefully rolled out to suitable rural surgeons to receive training in teaching hospitals, which would improve the provision of acute oral surgery within the rural population of India, and other countries.