Oral Health care delivery practices in the Armed Forces are built on the timetested protocols of motivation, periodic inspections to provide exceptionalpatient service and sound management principles. Oral health management process is dependent on coordinating and motivating people to achieve high quality outcome and is dedicated to make good practices better by tailoring a custom program for proficient and efficient oral health care delivery.

Army Dental Corps has adopted a method of delivering, supervising and coordinating oral health care to the service personnel, veterans and their families through a network of dental treatment facilities. These include, independent dental set ups, dental set up at various levels of deployment of the troops, military dental centres at Command level, Armed Forces Dental Clinic, Air Force Dental Centres spear headed by the Air Force Institute of Dental Sciences, , Naval Dental Centres on the ships and shore spear headed by the Naval Institute of Dental Science,Armed Forces Dental Clinic, New Delhi and the two centres of excellence : Dept of Dental Sciences, AFMC, Pune and Army Dental Centre (Research & Referral), Delhi Cantt.

The protocol of dental inspection and subsequent treatment being followed in Indian Armed Forces is very unique in its concept, application and delivery. We have a Unique method of detecting and treating dental ailments at incipient stage by carrying out the task of inspecting the troops every year and providing them the need based treatment of this magnitude. Towards this endeavour, AD Corps carries out a mammoth task for one of the largest forces in the world in a
befitting manner to keep every soldier in an optimum state of dental health.

Early detection of any disease opens the doors for ideal treatment plan and better prognosis. The same phenomenon is true in the case of oral diseases as well. It is a well established fact that undetected advanced lesions of dental caries and periodontal diseases are the most common factors of premature tooth loss. The troops of Armed Forces are also specially vulnerable to these diseases due to extremes of terrain of deployment. Unfortunately, none of these diseases manifest any unbearable symptoms at the stage of initiation and remain unnoticed by the individual. Health is a priority in the Indian Armed Forces. In order to ensure the early detection of oral diseases, a methodical dental inspection protocol has been designed by the Dental Services of Indian Armed Forces. The protocol forms the foundation of all kinds of dental treatment planning at different dental establishments of Army, Navy and Air Force and also forms the basis of oral health policy for the defence services.