Prof. Dr. Prashanti Eachempati
‘Our special guest today is Prof. Dr. Prashanti Eachempati who is currently working as a HOD of Prosthodontics at Melaka-Manipal Medical College. Her research interests include oral health and dental implants. Prof, can you tell us a little bit about where you’re from and what pinned your interest in dentistry?’
Alright, I belong to a place called Hyderabad, it is in the south of India. You must have heard about it because it is very famous for biryani. So yeah, I come from that place and I belong to a family of doctors. My mum is a gynecologist, my several aunts and uncles are doctors, my brother is an orthopedic surgeon and my sister-in-law is also a doctor. That way you know I belong to a family of doctors and right from my childhood I had this aspiration that I should become a doctor. My father who is a doctorate, not a medical doctor, but he always wanted me to become a doctor. My mum is my inspiration and I always thought that I would walk in her footsteps and become a gynecologist, but as they say, destiny drives. I missed the medical seat by a few ranks and I ended up in dentistry. But I’m very glad I did, because there’s where I found my husband, my partner, my life mate, that is Prof Sumanth. So that’s why I’ll say that maybe everything is linked, you know. That’s why I was pushed towards dentistry and I’m the first dentist in my family. So that way, actually destiny drives, not really by choice, I chose dentistry, because if I was given a choice I would have preferred to do medicine and become a gynecologist.
‘Can you share with us your story leading to your current position as HOD of Prosthodontics in MMMC?’
That’s a very interesting question and you said story, because when you said story, I’m reminded of several key people who are involved in this story. The people are the ones who make a story beautiful and more meaningful. So I think I should start off by telling you that my parents and my husband are the key people who actually insisted that I pursue my post-graduation. I did my post-graduation after I got married and so you must understand the support I got from my family to actually go and accomplish this goal. And very interestingly, when I was going for my counselling and I had to go and select the seats for post-graduation, I told my husband one thing, I said, “Except prosthodontics, I will choose any other subject, that’s fine with me.” When I reached the counselling side, they said, “Only prosthodontics seat is available. You take it or leave it because there were several people waiting to get a post-graduate seat.” I had no choice. I said, “Oh God, what do I do now?”, but I just went ahead and took prosthodontics.
But as they say, if a teacher is so loving and passionate about a subject, somehow they instill that into their students, and that’s exactly what happened. I was so lucky, to have a great teacher, a mentor, Prof Suresh Sajjen, who taught me prosthodontics, he almost took me by hand and lead me through this journey of prosthodontics specialty which I did for 3 years and at the end of these 3 years, I fell in love with the subject and you know that today I very passionately teach prosthodontics. Once I finished my post-graduation, I joined MCODS (Manipal College of Dental Sciences), Mangalore, where my husband Prof Sumanth was working. Another key person I should remember in the journey, is Dr Surendra Shetty, who was the Dean at that time and his administrative capabilities, his balance between personal and professional aspects really inspired me.
After 6 years of working there, I joined Prof Sumanth in MMMC and faculty of dentistry which is in Malaysia, Melaka Campus. After coming here I was totally lost because the system that we follow in India and the system we follow in Malaysia are totally different. Also, the assessment practices and the teaching methodology slightly varied. But again the key person who I should mention, who mentored me after I came to Malaysia, is our Dean, Prof Abdul Rashid Hj Ismail. Because of sir’s patience, his love and care for the faculty, and how much he has given us, I cannot say in words, because of him, we have learned so many things and I’m able to actually head the department of prosthodontics proudly, I can say mainly because of the mentoring I have received from sir.
So you can see that several people are involved in the success story of any person, or even the journey of any person. To top it all, I have to say the cherry on top is that I have always received great support from excellent teachers, excellent faculty and friends who are my colleagues that I work with. And of course my husband and my daughter, without their support I don’t think I can balance both the home front as well as the professional front. So that’s the cherry on top, I feel very blessed to be surrounded by all these people. Yes, that’s my story.
‘What is the criteria to be a good dentist/ prosthodontist?’
I have only a very simple and straightforward criteria whether you are a dentist, prosthodontist or any other professional, I think you should have the passion for the profession. You should have the passion for your subject and you should have that passion for your patients, treating your patients and teaching your students, whatever work you are doing, you should be passionate about it. So that passion is the main criteria I think which will take us successfully in a long way. That is what I tell all the students, please be passionate about whatever you are trying to do and be the best of whatever you are trying to do. So that’s the criteria I think which will make one successful, whether it’s a dentist or a prosthodontist.
‘Prof, you have designed a soft palatal gauge which is registered under the Intellectual Property of India in 2016. Could you explain to us more about the device and how it is used?’
This is interesting because as a student I always had great difficulty in understanding when teachers try to explain the soft palatal classification, Class I, II, and III and I used to always wonder how are they able to make out the angulation between the hard and soft palate by just visualizing with that naked eye. I faced the same problem when I became a teacher, struggling on how to make the students understand what is Class I, II and III. That led to the invention of an instrument which is called as a soft palatal gauge. Along with my colleague and friend, Prof Kiran, we came up with this instrument which we called a soft palatal gauge. It is an instrument placed inside the mouth, which will help us objectively measure the angulation of the soft palate. We sent it for a patent and it got published. We are waiting for the patent number currently, once we get the patent number, we can commercialize and also use it for several research purposes. We need to explore where else we can use this soft palatal gauge and how to expand its application. All this we need to do and we are looking forward to that.
‘Could you share with us the most fulfilling part of your career and any interesting experience maybe during your postgraduate days?’
The fulfilling part of my career, I would say, started off by the end of my post-graduation, I received the Best Outgoing Student Award as well as a Gold Medal in Prosthodontics and that was the beginning of my career which was very inspiring and motivating. When I received the award I could see the pride in the face of my family as well as my teacher, who I have mentioned, Prof Suresh Sajjen. So that was the gift that I could give him for taking me along in this journey of Prosthodontics. The second very memorable moment for me is when I received the Best Teacher Award in 2009. I think that I’m a very passionate teacher and I love to teach my students and when I receive appreciation from my students, I don’t think there is any better gift for a teacher.
I would also like to share one interesting story which happened during my career. As I told you Suresh Sajjen sir is my mentor in prosthodontics and he has inspired me to become whatever I am today. So I had taught several batches of students, in MCODS, Mangalore and one of my undergraduate students, she went ahead and pursued post-graduation in prosthodontics. After finishing prosthodontics, she went for a job interview in India, to my surprise, she went to the college where Suresh Sajjen sir was the Dean and he was interviewing my student and they didn’t know each other at all. Neither did I know that she is going for this interview. When sir questioned her, who inspired her to take up prosthodontics, and why did she take up prosthodontics, and she said it seems that, “I was inspired by my teacher, Dr Prashanti.” And sir was suddenly taken by surprise that he was talking to the student of his own student. He immediately called me right from that interview panel. He called me and said, “Do you know who is sitting in front of me?” and I said, “No, sir.” And he said, “Your student, so and so is sitting in front of me and she says she is inspired by you to take up prosthodontics.” And I was telling him on the phone that, “I’m inspired by you to become the prosthodontist I am.” So this is very very memorable to me and a very proud moment. It’s like a chain, a very good teacher can inspire others to become a good teacher. And another can inspire another. So that way the chain continues and this is a very memorable moment for me in my career.
‘One of your specialties is in implantology. Can you tell us briefly about what it is and why are you interested in this field?’
Implantology as you know is the modality of treatment for replacement of missing teeth today whether it is partially edentulous or completely edentulous situations. It is having a plethora of options, and I think the future of dentistry lies in the hands of implantology. As a professional I always believe that we should go ahead with the recent trends, we should learn about the recent trends, so that we not only benefit our students by teaching the recent trends, we will also benefit our patients by giving them the best modality of treatment. Implantology is a multispecialty branch I would say, where periodontists are involved, oral surgeons are involved, prosthodontists are involved and radiologists are involved. It has wide scope for different specialties to master several aspects of it and it is very interesting to me to take up implantology and I’m very happy to say, our institution is associated and affiliated with ICOI. That is the International Congress of Oral Implantology of the USA and we conduct an implant fellowship program here, and I’m one of the core members of that team which is headed by Prof Sunil. I’m very happy to be part of this team and be abreast with the recent technology and trends so that I can teach my students as well as practice it on my patients to give them the best.
‘Lastly, do you have any advice for the current dental students who wish to further in prosthodontics or implants?’
Alright, my advice to any of the dental students, who want to pursue their career in prosthodontics or implantology or any branch of dentistry as such is to master the fundamentals. Because fundamentals are core. Without having a strong foundation, you will not be able to sustain a building on it, isn’t it? Similarly, if your fundamentals are not strong, your concepts are not strong, your core concepts are not strong, you will not be able to build on it. What I see is that today’s generation of students are a little on the side that they want success instantaneously, overnight success is not possible. We have to go stepwise and build on that skills and knowledge and that is the way to success. There is no shortcut to success. That is what I would want to share with all my students and other dental undergraduates or whoever is trying to pursue prosthodontics. Please remember, learn stepwise and master your fundamentals, the core concepts, on which you need to build up on the several recent trends and skills that are emerging. That is what you need to do.