New Delhi: Only 14 per cent Indians said they will go to an AYUSH dentist for tooth extraction or root canal treatment (RCT), a LocalCircles survey has found.
The survey, published Thursday, received over 28,000 responses from across 303 districts — 67 per cent respondents were male, 33 per cent were female.
The survey comes weeks after a government notification listing 58 surgeries that Ayurveda practitioners can perform. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has been up in arms against the government move, calling it ‘mixopathy’. The IMA has also threatened to withdraw all non-essential, non-Covid services in hospitals on 11 December.
When asked if the citizens support the recent government move of allowing AYUSH practitioners to perform surgeries involving eyes, ears, throat and nose, 47 per cent supported the notification, while 43 per cent didn’t and 10 per cent said that they “can’t say”.
When the respondents were asked ‘If AYUSH doctors were to perform surgeries, what kind of antibiotics and anaesthesia should they be using’, 35 per cent said AYUSH practitioners shouldn’t be allowed to perform surgeries in the first place, 27 per cent said “let them use whatever they want to”, 20 per cent said “Ayush-based”, while 13 per cent said “Allopathy-based”.
The results indicated that 39 per cent are fine with AYUSH practitioners using allopathic antibiotics and anaesthesia for surgeries, the survey said.
48% in favour of AYUSH doctors performing surgeries
Asked if they would go to an AYUSH practitioner for a root canal treatment or dental surgery, only 14 per cent said they would go to an “AYUSH qualified or trained dentist”.
LocalCircles concluded based on their findings that while 48 per cent are in favour of AYUSH doctors being allowed to perform surgeries, only a small section are willing to go to them personally for surgeries like RCT or tooth extraction.
“This means that while for most, such a move will help the system in making more doctors available to perform surgeries, they themselves are unwilling to visit AYUSH doctors,” the survey stated.
Also read: How many of your colleagues used Ayurveda to treat Covid, IMA asks Harsh Vardhan