Bringing smile back on faces of oral cancer patients

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 30

The prosthodontics unit of the Oral Health Sciences Centre at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, is bringing smile back to the lives of the patients, who suffered from facial disfiguration due to oral cancer.

The children, who lost their eye due to the retinoblastoma (eye cancer), are also receiving treatment at the Oral Health Sciences Centre.

As the charges for the entire procedure of getting an artificial eyeball is Rs 100 at the PGI, Mahesh and Rashi have come all the way from Meerut for a routine check-up of their five-year-old daughter.

The couple’s daughter had developed a serious eye infection while she was 11-month-old.

Mahesh, who was working in an insurance company, had to leave his job.“I had travelled across the country and spent all my savings on the treatment of my daughter. Finally, a doctor suggested me to bring her to the PGI. Due to infection, her right eye was removed. The removal of the eyeball led to disfiguring of my daughter’s face,” said Mahesh.

He was told to visit the Oral Health Sciences Centre, where Dr Sudhir Bhandari and his team created an artificial eyeball that appears to be real.

Not only the treatment was effective but it was also affordable. “In Rs 100, experts at the prosthodontics unit fixed an artificial eyeball,” said Mahesh.

In 2012, Flying Officer BK Kaushik (retd) was detected with oral cancer. A part of his jaw and the cheek bone was removed. Due to cavity and disfiguring of the face, Kaushik was facing trouble while eating and speaking.

He was referred to the prosthodontics unit where a team of Dr Sudhir Bhandari implanted the obturator and teeth.

According to Sudhir Bhandari, in oral cancer surgeries, where a portion of jaw is removed, “We put an obturator. It is a three stage process. We have to keep in mind the re-occurrence of cancer. Initially, a temporary capping is done. Then, with the passage of time, the wound heals,” said Dr Sudhir Bhandari.

The Oral Health Sciences Centre receives almost seven cases of artificial eye and 50 dental implants each month.