Dr. V Sadhish Valavan – An Oral Pathologist weaving his story thread by thread by balancing the intricate difference between passion and the practical.

I'm very much proud to say, I'm a son of a dental mechanic.

My father studied in Diploma in Dental Mechanic in 1971-73 from Dental Wing, Madras Medical College.

His dreams and desires made me to become a Dentist in 1999 to 2004, by Grace from Above.

In my schooling days, I used to help my Father in dental flasking, dewaxing and packing of denture resins into flask etc. So, I’m fond of dentistry from early life.

After passing of final year during my internship period ,I aspired to do MDS and become an academician.

So in thirst of it, I studied using photocopies of various international author books in my internship period. Apart from clinical postings...all the hardships in entrance exam preparation ended in futility because after completing BDS, my parents became insistent on starting a clinical practice for bread and butter.

My parents thought academics will be saturated in a ten or fifteen years. So, in the long run, only practice would help in life. This was their reasoning against MDS.

So, in the year 2004,I started my private Dental Clinic...years passed. But even after a decade, my zeal to do MDS did not quench. Even though years passed, those UG days learning really helped me a lot in excelling in TNPGDEE 2014 ( a state level entrance exam) and pursue PG residency in Oral Pathology & Microbiology (2014-2017). I passed my MDS in July 2017 and then worked as a Senior Lecturer in Oral Pathology & Microbiology Department, for a year in May 2018- May 2019.

But, in my conscience, there was a lacunae. Even after centuries of worldwide ardent research efforts, " The overall survival of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma” cases were less than 5 years. I felt, inter disciplinary scientific research should be done to find a solution for this deadly disease

These things started haunting me and my life purpose. So, I was not able to concentrate on my academics and then finally quit it.

I am constantly looking for opportunities to do research on advanced topics such as Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma in sub domains such as personalized precision medicine, chair side diagnostic aids to delineate surgical margins, nutraceuticals to treat potentially pre-malignant lesions and automated algorithms to differentiate between pre-malignant and malignant lesions etc.

Among the 40,000 dentists in Tamil Nadu, only a handful of dentists are taking careers as researchers with interdisciplinary approach.

It is not a happy scenario to have such few interdisciplinary researchers in dentistry.

We are more inclined to BDS or MDS and clinical practice.

It’s a pity…that we are limiting our scope. We should grow and reach heights.

More budding young dentists with more vigour are needed in today’s scenarios. Without adequate interdisciplinary research, patients are dying because of more and more deadly Oral Pathologies.

To conclude, I'm willing to take strides against Oral Cancer.

Though, I'm not armed with a expert research team or funding or infrastructure to do research...I'm passionately searching for such opportunities….

My story is still in progress…

But I still decided to write it because I want to encourage all those young dentists out there who are despised, discouraged and downplayed by their environments.

My message to them is not to get tired or fret.

There's still something left for us.

And these things can be done by us and us only.

Hence my exhortation to you is this - " Arise and stay alive. Don’t stop until your goal is reached"

We all have a purpose and a destiny.

YOURS
Dr. V Sadhish Valavan, MDS
Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Pathologist
General Dental Practioner
Journal Reviewer in IJCO, JAMMR, JPRI, MRJI