ORIGINAL ARTICLE Efciency of Universal Back Resting Device in Public Health Dentistry Outreach Activities: A Cross-sectional Study among Patients and Service Care Providers Ashna M Benny 1 , Senthil Murugappan 2 A BSTRACT Aims and objectives: This study was undertaken to analyze the benefts and drawbacks of the universal back resting device (UBRD) and to use the obtained data to rectify defects if any and modify it for the betterment of treatment outcomes at camp sites. Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional questionnaire study undertaken among a group of 100 patients and 100 healthcare providers who have received treatment with the aid of and provided treatment with the UBRD, respectively. The data that were obtained by analyzed and percentages were calculated using SPSS 17 for windows. Results: The results of this study conclusively pointed out that the UBRD meets the demands that it was intended for and it can also be used as an alternative to portable dental chairs at camp sites or even in primary health centers when the available funds are insufcient in ratio to the number of people requiring treatment. The possible alteration that can be made to the device to increase its efciency was also noted. Conclusion: The UBRD has proved to be useful in providing oral healthcare at camp sites and could be stated that it is a fair enough alternative to conventional chairs when minimum resources are available. Clinical signifcance: The UBRD is a unique device that can aid in providing better treatment and is cost efcient and if it is implemented in camp/outreach sites, it would drastically increase the number of patients getting treated in a short period of time and to an efciency level almost as equal as a portable dental chair. Keywords: Camps, Dental, Efciency, Outreach programs, Universal back resting device. Journal of Scientifc Dentistry (2020): 10.5005/jp-journals-10083-0933 I NTRODUCTION Helping the people in our community who cannot aford oral healthcare has always been an important part of the mission and service of Public Health Dentistry. We bring much needed dental care to people who might not otherwise have access to it. Focusing on rendering quality healthcare in areas with below average availability of resources is challenging. For millions of Indians who sufer from dental ailments, consulting a dental surgeon remains an elusive dream, especially in rural areas. High capital required to establish dental operatories in rural outposts, i.e., primary health centers (PHCs) and during outreach programs is an obvious impediment. 1 Dental vans owned by teaching institutions and philanthropic organizations have limited operational capability in rural terrain due to lack of motorable roads. Portable dental units though are an alternative, they are costly. The basic portable dental unit includes an operator light source, an examination kit, a portable head rest, and a frst-aid kit for dental purposes. These portable dental units used have a rotary instrument and an operator light fxture that is packed in two cases. More complex portable units include a vacuum canister, ultrasonic scaler, radiographic equipment along with compressors for air–water syringes, and high and low speed handpieces. This equipment is stored and transported in durable boxes and cases. 2,3 While we have provisions for dental materials, instruments, and ultrasonic scalers, transporting dental chairs in large numbers always poses a problem. To overcome this issue, the Department of Public Health Dentistry of Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences (IGIDS), Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Puducherry has designed the universal back resting device (UBRD). It comprises headrest with locking hooks and hooking device that can be adjusted in three steps to enable the neck movement for the patient, velcro fastener to fx the device frmly in the back of the chair and a bottom section to reduce the height of the device (Fig. 1). The UBRD is portable, compact, light-weight, can be fxed to any chair, versatile, economical, and does not require a skilled person to be put to use. The device is one of its kind and has enabled dentists to work with better efciency and has also aided in the comfort of patients. The device has been patented and this study has been undertaken to analyze the efciency of the device from the perspective of both the dentists and the patient. 1 Department of Periodontia, Sree Mookambika Institute of Dental Sciences, Kulasekharam, Tamil Nadu, India 2 Department of Public Health Dentistry, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Puducherry, India Corresponding Author: Senthil Murugappan, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Puducherry, India, Phone: +91 9486365954, e-mail: senthilm@igids.ac.in How to cite this article: Benny AM, Murugappan S. Efciency of Universal Back Resting Device in Public Health Dentistry Outreach Activities: A Cross-sectional Study among Patients and Service Care Providers. J Sci Dent 2020;10(2):34–37. Source of support: Nil Confict of interest: None © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and non-commercial reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.