Dec 19, 2009
Amrita School of Dentistry, Kochi
 

Dr. Rahul Ravindran, intern at the Amrita School of Dentistry recently received the award for the best poster at a scientific convention organized in association with the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Govt. Dental College in Trivandrum.

Titled Mini Implants in Orthodontics, the poster was prepared by Dr. Rahul with the guidance of Dr. Biju Kalarikal, Reader in the Department of Orthodontics at the Amrita School of Dentistry.

“Orthodontics deals with the correction of irregular and protracted teeth,” explained Dr. Rahul. “Traditionally bracelets have been used to correct gaps in teeth and the procedure may take an average time of one and a half years for completion.”

“The new micro implant technique, on the other hand, makes gap correction possible in a six to nine month period, depending on the severity of the retraction required. My poster presentation highlighted micro implants in orthodontics.”

Artificial screws of diameter 7 mm made of a titanium alloy are inserted into the bone for tooth retraction. It is expected that this new orthodontic method may rapidly gain in popularity as it is suitable for people from all age groups.

“With the conventional method of anchorage, when we pull a tooth back taking support from another tooth, the supporting tooth also tends to move forward, thereby causing space loss. In the case of implants, such a thing does not happen.”

Eight dentistry colleges participated in this scientific convention that aimed to disseminate knowledge about new innovations in the field of dentistry. There were seven participants from the Amrita School of Dentistry; five presented papers and two including Dr. Rahul, participated in poster presentation.

Dr. Rahul has completed six months of his internship at Amrita already. “A very enthusiastic aspirant in the orthodontics area,” expressed Dr. Biju, who mentored and guided the young intern in making a compelling presentation. We congratulate both doctors on this achievement.