The curse of quackery in dentistry: A double-edged sword

The high price of dental treatment, repeated dental appointments, poor accessibility to dental clinics, illiteracy, and lack of awareness are the reasons for thriving of quackery in dentistry. In many developing countries of the world like our own, where dental health-care facilities by college-/university-trained personnel are limited and hospitals are few and a far or very expensive, the underprivileged of the society go to unqualified persons (known as quacks) to get dental treatment. Many dental quacks are practicing roadside, which makes money by doing unethical practice and ultimately hampering patient's oral health. It is thus a challenge to the dental practitioners to not only fight against this fraudulent of dental quackery but also to educate and convince the patient to distinguish between the quacks and dentists so that they get guided to take the right treatment.