Havoc of dental quacks in a district in India: A case series

Abstract

A 'quack' is defined as 'a fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill or a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or qualifications he or she does not possess.' A number of dental quacks are practicing roadside, making money by doing unethical and unhygienic practice, eventually, hampering the patient's oral and general health. Common quackery practices carried out in India are filling of teeth with acrylic resin, fixing the removable partial denture as fixed partial denture using wires and self-curing acrylic resin, using suction disc on the palatal surface of complete denture to improve retention, etc., leading to a number of unfortunate consequences. In this study, we present a case series of mal-treatments performed by different quacks in Dhule district of Maharashtra (India).