Dentist carves world's smallest tooth replica

Vadodara: A dental intern who has completed his final Bachelors of Dental Surgery (BDS) attempted a unique world record on Sunday.
Naman Rao, a student of K M Shah Dental College and Hospital, a constituent of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, carved out world's smallest human teeth replica, which is 85% to 90 %, smaller than the actual human teeth.
It took Rao, five hours, 13 minutes and 41 seconds in a single sitting to carve out the 5mm replica which was prepared from oil pastel colours.
"In the first year of BDS, we have a subject in which we are given a carver used for natural carving of a tooth. I have used the same instrument to carve out the smallest replica," said Rao, who has applied to get his attempt registered with the India Book of Records after which he will make similar attempts for registering the record elsewhere.
"When I joined dentistry, I had plans to do something new. So I had started carving small tooth from the waste of the natural wax blocks. But if we use wax block to carve such a small tooth, we cannot see the entire anatomy of the human tooth and hence I used oil pastel colours," he said.
The replica showcases not just the art of carving but also the exact anatomical features of a human tooth including crown length, root length, groves among others.
Three experts including Dr Chandramani B More, professor and head of the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology at K M Shah Dental College, Vadodara, Dr Dharmesh Vasavada, reader at the Department of Oral Pathology from Manubhai Dental College and Dr R N Mehta, chief district medical officer of Vadodara evaluated the attempt.
The experts used More-Rao medical skill for measuring the carved replica.
"Before making this attempt, I had cross-checked all the literature which suggested that till now nobody else had carved out such a small human tooth," said Rao, who had been practising for this since two years.