Reading Review: Mayekar's More Than A Mouthful- every dental student should read this!

Mayekar's 'More Than A Mouthful' is the third book I recommend to all aspiring dentists to read. Out of the three, I think this book is the most valuable. Not only is it actually about and written by a dentist, it is generally an awesome read. Mayekar's accounts are both exciting and insightful and his tone throughout the book makes him instantly likeable. This is partly due to his extensive dental qualifications and affluent patients such as models in Femina Miss India. He is a dentist who runs a multidisciplinary private practice which specialises in restorative and cosmetic dentistry. He was responsible for the launch of Aesthetic Dentistry in India and is the founding president of the Indian Academy of Aesthetic and Cosmetic Dentistry as well as the Academy of Craniofacial Aesthetics in INdia and the Academy of General Dentistry. I could literally go on and on, but all you have to know is that he is quite a big deal. I highly recommend this book to all dental students- it gives you a completely different perspective on dentistry.

The main theme of the book is how important dentistry and oral hygiene is to people's physical and mental health. Mayekar starts his book with an account of how a patient was almost driven to suicide by a misaligned bridge which caused him frequent but 'minor' annoyances. Mayekar also recounts how problems with the teeth can cause neck and even backpain- search up TMD if you're interested.

Mayekar also recounts the scary moments where he almost messed up and did mess up treatments in a bad way. One such example was when he damaged the nerve of a model while removing her wisdom teeth- how scary is that! Being a dentist won't always be plain sailing. Another example was when he was removing the wisdom teeth of another patients whose jaw he thought he cracked.

In contrast, Mayekar gives lots more examples cases where his work was very influential, from angering political leaders, to a celebrity turning up at his house at 3am. In case it's not clear, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think that every aspiring dentist will find some sort of value from it.