Ramifications of Dental Policy and its Impact on Public Oral Health

The oral health care system is to promote, maintain and prevent oral disease. It also aims at adequate treatment to arrest the disease at an early stage .There is a lack of clearly stated objectives and many a time lack of implementation. There are around 300 plus colleges(2)in India today. Opening up of private sector to dental college has both a positive and negative impact. Today dental treatment is available in many rural parts of India and there is an increased awareness as compared to before. Technology and infrastructure is widely available. The question is are the department and infrastructure used .Definitely not to the optimumas the are not performing for what they are designed. For example Community dentistry department has been used only to increase number of patients to dental colleges. It is seen as an advertisement agency for these colleges. Role of Community dentist has become that of is of a referring body. Other subjects relating to dental public health like fluoridation of drinking water, Commercial mouthwashes have also been a cause for concern, with some studies linking them to an increased risk of oral cancer(3, 4, 5, 6) has taken a back seat. The maximum permissible limit of fluoride in drinking water in India is 1.2 mg/L7. There are programs on tobacco awareness but its use in India does not show significant decline in users. Most of these programs are not involving dentist actively