Army Dental Corps comes of age
By Pritam Bhullar

IT was in 1905 that dental treatment for British troops in India was started by filling the posts of dental officers by the officers of the Army Medical Department. A few years later, the Royal Army Dental Corps was formed and British troops in India began to be treated by the officers of this corps.

At that time, dental treatment for Indian troops was not considered necessary and those needing this treatment were sent out of service. However, a set of forceps was kept in each medical inspection room (MI Room) for the extraction of loose and painful teeth. But when the Indian troops suffered any dental disability during active field service, they were referred to the British Army Dental Centres in big cantonments.

During the large scale mobilisation for World War II, sending personnel out of service for want of dental treatment came to be looked upon as an unnecessary wastage of manpower. This realisation resulted in the Indian troops being considered worthy of dental treatment, which was started for them in 1941.

A beginning was made by granting Emergency King’s Commission to eight civilian dental surgeons in the newly formed dental branch of the Indian Medical Service, known as IMS (D). After four weeks of basic training, they were sent to the British Army Dental Centres for training in dental technical administration. Four of them were then sent to Rawalpindi, Quetta, Dehra Dun and Poona (now Pune) to set up Indian Army Dental Centres.

A few years later, the number of dental officers was increased to 23. And with the formation of the Indian Army Medical Corps in 1943, the IMS (D) became the Indian Army Dental Corps (IADC). By the end of 1943, there were 131 officers in this corps. By then, dental treatment was also extended to the Navy and the Air Force.

As the war came to an end, many dental units were disbanded. But with the expansion of the Army after Independence, the Army Dental Corps (ADC) also started growing. However, its late start continued to affect the quality of treatment which was mainly restricted to extraction of teeth and filling of cavities until about the mid-eighties.

That the ADC has come of age, can be seen from the sophisticated treatment that most dental units are providing today. Despite this, the serving and retired soldiers and their families residing in and around Chandigarh continued to be deprived of the modern dental treatment in the absence of the Western Command Military Dental Centre which continued to be retained at Delhi cantonment even after the Command Hospital moved to Chandigarh in 1963 and then to Chandimandir in 1990.

Mercifully, the Command Military Dental Centre moved to Chandigarh in October, 1999, and is housed in a newly constructed building on the premises of the Command Hospital. It has brought a great relief to both serving and retired soldiers and their families. Eight thousand patients, including 3,000 ex-servicemen, were treated at this centre in the last three months.

Incidentally, this centre offers specialised treatment like maxillow facial, prosthodontics and periodontics. The maxillo facial surgery takes care of all the injuries related to the jaws. In prosthodontics surgery, apart from artificial dentures, deformities are corrected and crowns and bridges are fitted. Another special feature of this surgery is fitting of prosthesis. In periodontics surgery, gum disorders are treated and gums are reshaped.

The dental treatment in the Army has certainly come a long way from the forceps days.