Vishnu Danta Care began as an outreach initiative of the Vishnu Dental College, with an unwavering commitment for providing dental care at all three levels: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. The dental school’s state-of-the-art Teaching Hospital serves as the cornerstone, complemented by a robust portfolio of primary care programs aimed at promoting oral health awareness among rural population. These primary care programs address the immediate dental needs of rural patients and refer them to the Tertiary Care Centre for comprehensive and complex treatments. However, significant number of patients do not follow through with these referrals due to various barriers, including distance, travel expenses, potential loss of daily wages, reliance on family members for transportation, and social inhibitions.

To bridge this gap, the dental school launched Rural Satellite Clinics with the objective of making affordable, quality dental care accessible to rural population. This happened to be the genesis of our initiative.

The magnitude of the problem is underscored by World Health Organization (WHO, 2020) report, which revealed that 95% of adults in India have dental caries, over 50% have periodontal disease, and oral cancer is the 13th most common cancer worldwide. With over 350,000 registered dental surgeons in India, translating to 2 dentists per 10,000 people, and the majority opting to practice in urban areas leaving rural regions are severely underserved. The common risk factors and public health issues associated with oral diseases represent a significant burden not only in India but globally. Contributing risk factors include tobacco and alcohol use, lack of access to dental care, prevalence of quackery, poor oral hygiene practices, and the age and education levels of the rural population. This made the initiative very timely both in terms of relevance and need.

Initially, the initiative was driven by a small team of dentists and eventually key processes evolved. We explored the best practices like Aravind Eye Care System, Madurai and LV Prasad Eye Institute to understand the critical success factors and learnings in their pyrammidal care model. We collaborated with Aravind Eye Care, visited their site(s) for deeper operational-level insights. Twinning this wisdom with the unique domain specific dynamics of dentistry, Vishnu Danta Care evolved into a  robust secondary care solution connecting the missing link between Vishnu Dental Hospital (Tertiary Care) and their Primary Care level initiatives.

Over the past decade, the model is rigorously tested for its operational viability, serving about 60,000 patients and performing over 120,000 treatment procedures every year, formed into a separate entity Vishnu Danta Care. 

Today, Vishnu Danta Care, a sustainable social enterprise is a scalable model aiming to reach the milestone of 100 rural clinics  over the next 10 years, thereby emerging as a significant player in improving access to affordable quality dental care in Rural India.