Researchers at IIT Bombay developed a portable patient chair for use in rural dental clinics

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay's IDC School of Design have created a portable patient chair for dental camps. The goal is to develop a replacement for the dental clinic chair that can be transported to camps in rural areas of the country.

The researchers aimed to create a chair that was both portable and easy to use and clean, and they had a prototype production-ready. They met with dentists multiple times to discuss particular issues with the patient chair at rural dental camps. The prototype will now be used to see if any additional adjustments are required.

"We have taken a student project from design to pilot production for the benefit of dental patients in rural areas," said Professor B K Chakravarthy at the IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay.

According to his information, more than 70% of India's population lives in rural areas, where there is only one dentist for every 250,000 individuals.

The portable patient chair is a durable and adaptable foldable chair that is ideal for traveling dental camps. The chair is lightweight, folds to conserve room in dental vans, and has attached wheels to form a trolley, and is designed with hygiene and transportability in mind.

This chair would enable dentistry camps to serve a larger proportion of India's underserved patient population in both urban and rural areas, thereby improving access to basic healthcare. It was created to fulfill the demands of dentists in summer camps. It promotes sitting dentistry by allowing the dentist to sit and operate comfortably in the chair.