You might have heard about artificial teeth that are used to replace a missing tooth or teeth. The placement of artificial teeth is done by dentists through Dental Implant surgery. Dental Implants are metal posts or frames that are surgically positioned into the jawbone beneath your gums to provide stable support for artificial teeth. Dr. Prerna Karde, pursuing MDS at K.B.H. Dental College & Hospital, Nashik, has created a device that can potentially reduce the time, cost and complications involved in dental implant surgeries. She recently received first prize among Post Graduate students in Medicine and Pharmacy discipline at the State level research convention, Avishkar, for her innovation.

Dental implants have become a treatment option widely used for the replacement of lost teeth. They also generally provide a much higher level of patient comfort than dentures. However, accurate placement of implant is required to achieve best functional and aesthetic result. Since the oral cavity is a relatively restricted space, a high degree of accuracy in placement of implant is very important for success of the surgery. Dr. Prerna studied available stent designs for implant placement, analysed their shortcomings and then planned, designed and fabricated a device that can guide implant drill to facilitate accurate placement of implant.

Advantage of this device is that it can be used for all the patients and need not be fabricated separately for different patients which is the drawback of presently available stents. This will help in reducing the cost and time both for the patient as well as the dentist. Presently the device is used only on models. Dr. Prerna wishes to evaluate its efficacy in patients and also look for patenting it in near future.

Dr. Prerna participated in Avishkar as she wanted to showcase her innovation in this renowned research oriented platform. She represented Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik. She ensured that she explained the project in simple language as the audience in this competition was not only related to dental fraternity but from all disciplines of education. She received encouraging feedback on her innovation and the experts at the convention were highly impressed with the innovative potential in the project.
Winning at Avishkar was a very happy and proud moment for me and I could see it in the eyes of my parents who had accompanied me for the event. I would like to thank my senior Dr. Chaitanya Joshi who helped me throughout this project. Also, I would like to thank my brother Bhushan Karde who helped me with Designing of the model.
Dr. Prerna Karde
Comments