Believe it or not but still there are people who practice dental quackery in Jammu and have a good number of customers (Patients) who prefer roadside treatment over scores of dental clinics which have seen mushroom growth in recent times.
Jammu Bus Stand and Gummat areas have the famous spots where one can find such quacks, who promise quick relief from dental ailments that too with guarantee of lowest charges. Though dental quacks provide the poor patients with cheap treatments, they are damaging the patient’s oral health.
The high price of dental treatment, repeated dental appointments, poor access to dental clinics, illiteracy, and lack of awareness are the reasons for the blooming of quackery in dentistry.
Dental quacks are practicing roadside, making money by doing unethical and unhygienic practice and eventually, hampering the patient’s oral health. Filling of teeth with acrylic resin, fixing the removable partial denture as fixed partial denture using wires and self-curing acrylic resin, using suction disc on the palatal surface of complete denture to improve retention and so many other treatments are available with these ‘Jhola Chhap’ dentists even during the peak of third wave of the pandemic corona despite the profession being illegal as cops in the country seldom notice this illegitimate practice which galore in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and many other states of the country.
Surprisingly, there are many Asian countries which have medical quacks akin to India and the people come to them in large numbers for cheap treatments. Besides being illegal, the Roadside dental quackery is unethical, unhealthy and unscientific but is quite popular among the poorest of poor due to lack of awareness about oral hygiene. Though in many cases, dental quacks provide the poor patients with cheap treatments but for sure they are damaging the patient’s oral health.
As compared to cities, dental quackery is more prevalent in rural areas because of low awareness regarding oral health, poverty and lack of primary dental care centers. These dental quacks generally learn skills from dentists while working as their assistants or through their ancestors who also practiced quackery as a profession. For sure their treatment gives temporary relief and in the long run is dangerous.
