The Edify meet of our Department of General Pathology was held on 09.05.2019. We presented a video on innovative class activities being carried out in our department. Various activities with regards to hematology chapter were conducted for the students who showed active participation. We showed ‘Bingo puzzle’ activity to easily understand the classification of anemia, ‘C the I’ activity for better understanding of the iron absorption pathway and Innovative ‘Blow pen’ activity on types of RBCs in various diseases. Also we showed amazing macroscopic peripheral smear images of various anemias using ‘Glue gun’ activity for which good appreciation was received from the audience. We obtained a cumulative score of 8.4 for our presentation.
Post Graduate - Induction Ceremony 2019
The Induction program for the 2019 batch of MDS students was held on 17th of April 2019 at the decennial hall at Saveetha dental college. The 47 students along with the parents/guardians attended the function, which was graced by our honorable Chancellor, Vice chancellor, Director of Academics, Dean of faculty and Dean of the dental college. Dr. A. Kumaraswamy , Periodontist and Implantologist from Mumbai was the chief guest of the day. The event began with the welcome address by the Dean Dr.Sheeja Varghese followed by inspiring addresses by our honorable Chancellor and Vice chancellor. Our chief guest addressed the students and congratulated them on choosing this institution for their post-graduation. He expressed his contentment and appreciation for the innovative curriculum and infrastructure in our college; something he hadn’t seen anywhere else in the country. The function proceeded with an address from our director of academics Dr.Deepak nallaswamy on how we plan our curriculum and the modifications we have introduced to make it more suitable for our post- graduates. Few of our postgraduates from the 2019 batch volunteered to speak as to why they chose our college for their post-graduation. Most of them expressed great joy on procuring an admission at Saveetha and how they had heard great thing about it during their Undergraduate days. A few of our current batch of MDS students doing 2nd year MDS also spoke about the benefits of being in our college and what their juniors could look forward to in the coming years at Saveetha. The event ended with a vote of thanks by our Dean of Faculty Dr.N.D Jayakumar.
TOBACCO SESSION SERVICES FROM A CLINICIANS PERSPECTIVE
Every year the department of Public Health Dentistry celebrates “No tobacco week” on the last week of may. It is one of the eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO).
A 3 day program was scheduled for 2019. First day (28.5.2019), the employees of YSI PVT LTD underwent a free oral cancer screening and were given group counselling on the harmful effects of using tobacco. Second day program was scheduled on 30.5.19, a team of doctors from Saveetha Dental College had gone for dental screening and raising awareness for the health consequences of tobacco for the transgender community. Awareness was raised using posters and videos. The crowd was inquisitive and attentive throughout the presentation.
On 31st of May, 2019, the program was celebrated in various public sectors. Five postgraduate students and fifty under graduates participated in a human chain formation at Elliot’s beach, Besant Nagar, in association with Indian Dental Association (Chennai branch) and Adyar Cancer Institute. It consisted of around 500 volunteers joining hands together to spread the awareness on tobacco. We had organised an awareness program during the functioning hours of the college, inside the premises too. The patients visiting the college were given one anti tobacco counselling. Pamphlets were distributed to the patients emphasizing on quitting the habit. Posters demonstrating how tobacco affects our health were explained to the patients.
ELISA Biomarker-Guest lecture and Workshop
Dr. Ramajayam, Madurai Medical College enlightened the students on usage of ELISA as a biomarker for various diseases. There were around 20 Participants from inside and outside SDC. He also did a hands on demonstration on performing ELISA
MINIMALLY INVASIVE & ATRAUMATIC BONE SURGERIES
The Acteon Continuing Education program entitled “New Paradigms in Hard Tissue Management”, a workshop on Piezosurgery was organised by Acteon in association with Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Chennai on May 2nd 2019 held at the Saveetha School of Management (SSM Hall). Dr. Dhandapani Arunachalam delivered a lecture on the topic “MINIMALLY INVASIVE & ATRAUMATIC BONE SURGERIES” followed by a Demo and Hands-On using the Piezotome cube equipment. The enthralling workshop was successfully conducted with 90 participants for the lecture and demo. The hands-on was restricted to selective participants and focused on understanding the various clinical applications of piezo technology.
Workshop on Piezosurgery
The Acteon Continuing Education program entitled “New Paradigms in Hard Tissue Management”, a workshop on Piezosurgery was organised by Acteon in association with Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, Chennai on May 2nd 2019 held at the Saveetha School of Management (SSM Hall). Dr. Dhandapani Arunachalam delivered a lecture on the topic “MINIMALLY INVASIVE & ATRAUMATIC BONE SURGERIES” followed by a Demo and Hands-On using the Piezotome cube equipment. The enthralling workshop was successfully conducted with 90 participants for the lecture and demo. The hands-on was restricted to selective participants and focused on understanding the various clinical applications of piezo technology.
World DNA day -BRULAC
World DNA day – April 25 th 2019
Biomedical research unit and laboratory animal centre – Dental research cell celebrated the World DNA day on the 25 th of April 2019. The goal of programme was to commemorate the incredible discovery of the century the “DNA molecule” by Watson and Crick. The postgraduate students from various specialities participated in the Hands-on workshop on the topic “Genomics and Precision Medicine”. They were introduced to the animal experimentation facilities by Dr.M.Karthik Ganesh and Cell culture-Molecular biology facilities by Dr.A.Paramasivam. There was a guest lecture on “Pedigree analysis, Human genetic variations and Pharmacogenetics” delivered by Dr.J.Vijayashree, following which Dr.S.Durairaj briefed about his thrust area on “MicroRNAs”. Dr.D.Ezhilarasan explained about his thrust area on Cancer Biology, Pharmacology and Toxicology. He thanked all the students for their enthusiastic response and support during the programme.
Real Time - PCR Workshop and Guest Lecture
The guest lecture followed by handoff workshop was a real success with 45 participants from across various colleges from Chennai. Dr.Anandan, from Madras University gave an insight on various aspects of PCR along with insight on its applications in dentistry.
STEM CELLS: THE FUTURE OF RESTORATIVE DENTISTRY
Mesenchymal stem cells isolated from dental pulp has the inherent capacity to differentiate into different cells types such as neural cells, osteoblasts, adipocytes, chondrocytes etc.,. In view of the above fact, the workshop on stem cell culture and characterization was initiated at BRULAC-DRC, Saveetha Dental College on the 15th of April 2019. The delegates and students were welcomed by Dr.M.Karthik Ganesh and Dr.J.Vijayashree. The workshop started with a brief introduction about the invited speaker Dr.S.Raghunandhakumar, UGC-Kothari Postdoctoral Fellow by Dr.D.Ezhilarasan. The presentation on “Mesenchymal stem cells from dental pulp and their application” enlightened the students and other delegates about the potential use of MSCs in the field of dentistry. The speaker was felicitated by Dr.A.Paramasivam and Dr.A.Padmaraj.
The hands-on training started with processing of dental pulp which was demonstrated by Dr.A.Paramasivam and Dr.S.Raghunandhakumar. The students were asked to perform the procedure independently, following which they isolated RNA from the cells. The students and delegates were enthralled to visualize RNA on the agarose gel. The characterization of the stem cells was achieved by specific marker detection employing both reverse transcriptase and conventional PCR. The principle and methodology was explained to students and they were taught to set-up a PCR reaction and programming of the thermal cycler. Stem cell marker specific PCR returned a positive result which was shared to students after gel documentation. The workshop concluded with positive feedbacks from the delegates and students, which proved its success!
THE FUTURE OF RESTORATIVE DENTISTRY
Mesenchymal stem cells isolated from dental pulp has the inherent capacity to differentiate into different cells types such as neural cells, osteoblasts, adipocytes, chondrocytes etc.,. In view of the above fact, the workshop on stem cell culture and characterization was initiated at BRULAC-DRC, Saveetha Dental College on the 15th of April 2019. The delegates and students were welcomed by Dr.M.Karthik Ganesh and Dr.J.Vijayashree. The workshop started with a brief introduction about the invited speaker Dr.S.Raghunandhakumar, UGC-Kothari Postdoctoral Fellow by Dr.D.Ezhilarasan. The presentation on “Mesenchymal stem cells from dental pulp and their application” enlightened the students and other delegates about the potential use of MSCs in the field of dentistry. The speaker was felicitated by Dr.A.Paramasivam and Dr.A.Padmaraj.
The hands-on training started with processing of dental pulp which was demonstrated by Dr.A.Paramasivam and Dr.S.Raghunandhakumar. The students were asked to perform the procedure independently, following which they isolated RNA from the cells. The students and delegates were enthralled to visualize RNA on the agarose gel. The characterization of the stem cells was achieved by specific marker detection employing both reverse transcriptase and conventional PCR. The principle and methodology was explained to students and they were taught to set-up a PCR reaction and programming of the thermal cycler. Stem cell marker specific PCR returned a positive result which was shared to students after gel documentation. The workshop concluded with positive feedbacks from the delegates and students, which proved its success!
International Credit Course on Theranostic Drug Delivery System-Credit Course
The Department of Pharmacology organised a credit course on the topic Theranostic Drug Delivery System from 25th March to 29th March, in collaboration with University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. The CDE points for the over all course was approved to be 23 (TNDC approval No135/19).
Prof. Kylie Williams and Dr. Kamal Dua from UTS was invited as international speakers and Dr.Anitha Roy, Dr. Lakshmi.T, Dr.Ezhilarasan.D , Dr. Rajeshkumar.S, Mr.Lakshminarayanan.A from department of Pharmacology , Dr. Jaiganesh.R, Dr. Radhika, Dr.Arvina from department of Periodontics were the national speakers for the event . Participants from various colleges attended the credit course. On the 4th day an examination on grant proposal writing was conducted and best proposal was awarded with a certificate of appreciation.
As a continuation of the credit course the 5th day 29th March was addressed to be an International Symposium on the topic Current Concept in Drug Discovery. Prof. Kylie Williams and Dr. Kamal Dua from UTS was invited as international speakers and Dr. K SenthilKumaran and Dr.B. Premkumar as national speakers. Also an e-poster presentation completion was conducted and best poster was awarded with a certificate of appreciation.
Molecular Diagnosis of Antibiotic resistance in Oral Pathogens
The Department of Microbiology organized a “National Level Hands-on Workshop on Molecular Diagnosis of Antibiotic resistance in Oral Pathogens” in technical Collaboration With Biozone Research Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Chennai from 26th- 29th March 2019. The three-day workshop included wet-lab activities, lectures and group discussions. The work shop was well attended by thirty nine registered delegates including the undergraduate, post graduates and faculties.
Antimicrobial resistance is a growing global public health threat. This workshop is an effort to equip researchers and dental practitioners with the recent advances in genomic analysis of antimicrobial resistance. This is an effort to evince the current scenario and method for analyzing beta lactamase gene, biofilm producing gene expressions and efflux pump gene expressions in oral bacteria by gene specific PCR and Real time PCR.
The workshop was inaugurated by Dr. Thangam Menon, Retd. Professor of Microbiology, University of Madras, Chennai, and also delivered a lecture on “Prevalence of antibiotic resistance in the environment: the current scenario”. Hands on training was given on isolation, characterization and study of antibiotic susceptibility pattern of pathogens from clinical samples.
The second day of the workshop started with a brief lecture by Dr.Aneesh Nair, on the procedure involved in the extraction of genomic DNA and a note on the working principle of the equipment such as centrifuge, vortex, spectrophotometer etc., Pipette handling, loading the samples into the centrifuge, terms like RCF and RPM, preparation of agarose gel. Dr.Florida Tilton, interacted with the delegates about the DNA extraction procedure and also delivered a lecture on “Molecular methods for the detection of antimicrobial resistance among oral pathogens. Dr.Rex Arunraj delivered a lecture on “Polymerase chain reaction and its application in diagnosis”. His lecture emphasized the techniques on improving the sensitivity and specificity of PCR tool in diagnostic field.
On the third day of the workshop participants were trained to perform polymerase chain reaction using specific primers. The students processed their samples with the guidance and allowed to set-up program in the thermal cycler. The PCR products were visualized using an UV transilluminator and were documented in a gel documentation system.
Dr.Wilson Aruni, delivered a lecture on “Human oral microbiome and oral cancer”. The lecture was very informative and imparted several novel ideas in students. The valedictory note and vote of thanks was delivered by Dr. R.V.Geetha, where she thanked the entire team for the successful event
Its time to End TB- Awareness Campaign
Department of Microbiology observed the World TB day on 24th of March 2019 at Saveetha Dental College and Hospital premises with the motto “Its time: End TB”. Faculties organized an awareness campaign towards the tuberculosis threat among the faculties, visiting patients, technical staff and class IV servants. Pamphlets creating awareness on TB prevention and transmission were distributed for the visiting patients. Banners and posters were displayed at various places in the college with the information about the motto for the year 2019, pathogenesis, treatment regimens, incidence rates and resistant scenario of TB.
Mesenchymal Stem Cell- Guest Lecture
Mesenchymal Stem Cell- Guest Lecture held on 6/6/2019. Lecture was delivered by Dr. Kalimuthu Senthil kumar, Scientist who had worked enormously on Mesenchymal Cells had narrated his experience on working on Mesenchymal Cells. He also enlisted the students on various application and the future scope of the research on the same. Dentistry being a field where mesenchymal cells are most promising area of research it helped our students to understand the path of research. Over 100 of them benefitted from this.
FORENSIC ODONTOLOGY IN A NUTSHELL
The Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Saveetha Dental College conducted Guest lecture on “Forensic Odontology in a Nutshell” on 5th April 2019.
Forensic odontology is proper handling, examination, and evaluation of dental evidence, which will be presented in the interest of justice. As a sign of extending our student centric learning process the department had organised a Guest lecture on “Forensic Odontology, where all the basics of Forensic techniques in Human identification using dental evidences were explained and discussed in a nutshell with the II BDS Additional Batch students and MDS Oral pathology students. This Guest lecture was conducted especially as a part of Forensic odontology Module course for the II BDS Additional Batch students.
The resource person was Dr. A. Balamurugan, Tutor, Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dental Sciences, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research. Dr. Balamurugan is an eminent Forensic Odontologist who did Msc in Forensic odontology after graduation. He is well versed with all the Forensic Odontology techniques.
The session was conducted for 4 hours, with various small useful activities conducted in between the lectures. The main activities conducted were Various Age estimation methods, Bite mark identification, Cranio-morphological Gender Determination, Comparison of Antemortem and Postmortem Dental records, Cheiloscopy and Rugoscopy patterns. The event was extremely useful for the students as part of their curriculum.
Edify: Activity Based Learning-Department of Physiology
The theme for this Edify session is based on “ACTIVITY BASED LEARNING”. Based on the theme, we the department of Physiology prepared 4 different best activities such as Gamification, Woolen thread model, Slime model, Paper craft. Dr. Deepak Sir appreciated paper craft model. After video showcase, link was shared to faculty members and we secured cumulative score of 8.86.
Itis and Osis in Endodontics
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics organized a guest lecture on “Itis and Osis in Endodontics ” on 26.3.19 presented by Dr. S.Aravind Warrier, Professor, Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Sri Ramachandra Dental College and Hospital, Chennai. Endodontists play major role in relieving the pain associated with tooth related conditions. This presentation addressed the clinical scenarios leading to diagnostic dilemmas for an endodontist. Further the discussion guided the post graduates to understand the clinical conditions appropriately for an optimal outcome.
Role of Platelet Rich Fibrin and its Biological Mediators in Dentistry
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics organized a guest lecture on “Role of Platelet Rich Fibrin and its Biological Mediators in Dentistry” on 15.3.19 presented by Dr. K. Anil Kumar, Reader, Department of Periodontology, Meenakshi Ammal Dental College, Chennai. Research into regenerative dentistry has added impetus onto the field of molecular biology. It can be documented as a prototype shift in the therapeutic armamentarium for dental disease. Regenerative endodontic procedures are widely being added to the current armamentarium of pulp therapy procedures. The regenerative potential of platelets has been deliberated. A new family of platelet concentrates called the platelet rich fibrin (PRF) has been recently used by several investigators and has shown application in diverse disciplines of dentistry. This lecture deliberated on the various prospects of PRF, and its clinical and molecular insights to dentistry.
It's now or never- CDE Department of Physiology
Department of Physiology conducted a CDE Programme on 30th March 2019 entitled as “It’s now or never” by Mrs. Navukkarasi from Annai Veilankanni College of Arts and Science and a certified soft skills trainer. She delivered motivational thoughts among the students on developing the soft skills and personal empowerment. Students were very interactive and the lecture came up with inspiring thoughts.
Edify- Department of Anatomy
The New Cycle of Edify was started on 29th March 2019 and the presenting department was the Department of Anatomy.
Dr. M.Karthik Ganesh, Senior Lecturer, Department of Anatomy, addressed and greeted the gathering for the first session of the new cycle of Edify on behalf of the Faculty members of the Department. He explained about the new theme of this version of Edify which was on “Best Class Activity”. He also correlated the activity based learning with a saying “Listening is better than Learning, Observing is better than Listening, Doing is better than Observing”. Then the video was played for watching. The video demonstrated the Paper and Clay Modeling to be the best class activity of the Department. One of the toughest topics in Head & Neck Anatomy for BDS students is the Larynx. The video showed the class activity for Larynx using paper craft modeling, where the students actively involved in making the paper craft model of the various cartilages of Larynx. The video also described even a slow learner can understand a tough topic using such paper craft models.
After this, the clay modeling activity on the layers of Scalp was shown. This part of the video depicted the structural arrangement of the different layers of the scalp using various coloured origami papers and clay for each layer. A piece meal of the layers of scalp was made and it was explained by the students as a live discussion between individuals in a group of students. Finally the video concluded with the feedback from the students on the significance of class activity.
After the completion of the video, the Director of Academics, Dr. Deepak Nallaswamy commented that the video is good and suggested to have uniformity in the audio aspect of the video while editing. Then the link for Edify Scoring was sent to the gathered faculty members. Out of 101 responses the Department of Anatomy got 830 points. Then the Director congratulated the staffs of the Department on getting better score for their video.