The Dental and Oral Surgery department in Chitrakoot is set up to modern standards and will shortly be supported by a dental laboratory. The pathological and haematology departments of the main hospital are readily accessible on site, which means that routine investigation and biopsy can be carried out. Xrays are processed immediately and filed with records that are part of a computerised system. Photographic records are similarly stored.

Lab facilities at Chitrakoot

Sterilisation is by autoclave and disposables used as in any modern surgery. It was a basic tenet in setting up the service that standards should be of the very highest and this has been achieved.

Lab facilities at Chitrakoot

The type of work carried out varies with the abilities of the particular operator, and patients can be booked accordingly from a large waiting pool of pre-screened patients. At the moment all treatment is carried out under local anaesthesia and patients needing more major surgery are helped to get access to one of the main centres, but these are often many miles away. Shortly IV sedation will become available and also general anaesthesia within an adjacent maternity unit. This will of course expand the range of treatment available to involve more major surgery including clefts, trauma and some tumour work..

Patient cooperation including that of children is generally excellent because, for many, this is the first experience of painless treatment for relief of often acute pain.

We do not in general know how many patients will arrive for treatment but we try and work until all those arriving are treated The current record for a village clinic stands at 160 patients but around 90 is more normal.

Once outside the main department in the villages the real challenge begins. The research institute (DRI) has so far involved 200 villages in its sustainability programme which means that the essential organisers, the Graduate Couples, are on site to help. We aim to reach each of those villages at least once a year. We have our own four wheel drive transport and drivers and can take with us a mobile surgery set up with three sun-loungers as operating tables and a diesel generator to run equipment. Most problems can be dealt with on site but where it is too complicated, referral to Chitrakoot can be arranged. The two most carried out procedures are extraction of teeth and roots, and scaling. We take with us medicines when necessary but often the local ayurvedic solution is preferred by the patients.

Graduate Couples are on site to help..

We attempt health education verbally through the Graduate Couples but this area of our work is to be much expanded with audio-visual displays during clinics and written material left in the villages and schools for regular reinforcement of the messages.

There is something really special about working in a village. See testimonials And photographic record..