Times of India
07 June 2010
By Pratibha Masand
Mumbai, India

It was a big day for Sameer Jain about 10 months ago when, while doing some research on root canal machines, he thought of making a few modifications. It took him a full month but, when he was done, he had made a modified ‘root canal obturation machine’, complete with a temperature modulator and a vibrator. Jain has already tried out his new technique on extracted teeth but is still waiting to try it out on patients.

What makes it beyond the pale of the ordinary is that the 20-year-old is a thirdyear student at MGV Dental College in Nashik and he would be studying the subject of root canals officially only next year. His ideas were initially ridiculed by everyone in his profession but he did not lose heart and kept working on it.

"Once I had done all the research on the topic, I realized that the root canal machines cost in lakhs and, even then, patients would sometimes come back with a swelling or would have to go in for removal of the tooth," Jain said. So he made a machine, he claimed, from scratch at a budget of Rs 1,000 and went in for a patent. "The Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) has given me permission to try it on patients after my machine proved successful on extracted teeth," he added.