“For the last two years, I was chewing on only one side and bleeding gums too. But the virus scare kept me from going to the dentist even though they were allowed to reopen,” said Gowda, a diabetic patient. He finally stepped into a dentist’s clinic in May 2022.
His dental health deteriorated, Gowda had to undergo the procedure again for the same tooth. “There is a lot of demand, which has made it difficult for me to make an appointment with my dentist. I have four more sessions and it is difficult to complete the appointments as I have also started working from office,” the Vasantnagar resident told STOI.
Gowda’s case is an example of how in a post-Covid world, the dental health industry is facing a surge in complaints. While dentists are seeing a 30-40% increase in their clinics, patients are finding it difficult to make appointments.
Dr Venkatesh Garla of Smileaf Dental Clinic on Sarjapur Road said that due to the Covid situation many people have not visited the dentists for a long time and are compelled to do so with advanced stages of dental problems with unbearable pain. “Most of the early stages of dental problems require disease control and if these measures are not taken, the solutions in the advanced stages are elaborate and costly,” said Dr. Garla, adding that the major problems in children’s development are are related to.
“Such developmental problems are best treated before or during puberty. Due to the COVID situation, parents do not bring their children to the orthodontist and the most crucial time of treatment is missed. Hence, children are being deprived of ideal treatment options,” he said. Dr. Sakshi Hinduja, Consultant, Aesthetic Dentistry, Aster CMI Hospital, said that the teeth which could have been treated with simple dental procedures are now root canal. More extensive management is needed. “The waiting period (for appointments) can be anywhere between three days and a week,” said Dr. Hinduja, who is now seeing twice as many patients every week. .
Dr Balasubramania KV, HOD and Senior Consultant, Periodontics, Sakra World Hospital said that they have seen 20-30% increase in patient footfall. “There has been an increase in gum infections and caries because they were unable to visit dentists regularly,” he said, adding that post-pandemic patients are coming down with aggressive stages of dental diseases.
Dr Rahul Reddy, Head of Clinical Operations and Excellence, Apollo said, the pandemic has made people more aware about maintaining good health. “The most common problems we saw were sensitivity and food was accumulating in the upper and lower teeth,” Reddy said, adding that 77 percent of patients aged 17-34 required restorative care. He said that in the 45-64 age group, 95.8% required periodontal, 90.9% prosthetic and 13.3% surgical care.
The same is true of Tier-2 cities of the state. They are also full of patients from neighboring villages, said Dr Ramchandra Alnavar, MDS, a Hubli-based orthodontist. “Patients tend to overuse other teeth rather than painful teeth. This overuse damages other teeth,” he said.