You step into the dentist’s office, all jitters and nerves at thought of your appointment. Then imagine being transported to a jungle. As the door opens, you enter the twilight zone, there's a gorilla welcoming you inside and all kinds of animals asking you go further, and you can almost imagine the enthralling birds chirping overhead.
No, you haven't been transported to a new world through a magical door – this is in fact a dental centre in Bengaluru.
In an attempt to help patients overcome their fear of visiting dentists, Bengaluru-based Vatsalya Dental has launched a unique theme-based dental centre ‘Dento Jungle’.
Located in JP Nagar, the 8,000 sq feet clinic housing 21 consultation centres aims to tackle dental problems while eliminating the fear attached to visiting dentists.
“Children are scared of dentists and dentistry, so we tried to make the centre as different and unique as possible from a normal hospital so that children can come here and think it is a play area,” said Dr. Srivats Bharadwaj, founder of Vatsalya Dental.
With 22 years of paediatric experience, Dr. Bharadwaj was working on a dental care idea where “people don’t feel it is a hospital.” With the launch of ‘Dento Jungle’ in Bengaluru, he hopes that such centres will come up elsewhere in Karnataka too.
The centre not only has caves and trees to charm visitors, but also has popular characters like Mowgli and Bagheera from the Jungle Book depicted too. Each consultation room is designed to mimic a cave or jungle-like setting so that children feel comfortable.
At the entrance is ‘Live Mouth,’ a larger-than-life 3D installation of a mouth that children can enter and observe, while seven of the 21 consultation centres can be availed by adults. “Doctors are also relieved as they can treat children easily when they are not fussy. It is actually the opposite here. Children create havoc at times,” smiles Dr. Bharadwaj.
The dental start-up venture received funding from US-based investment management company S-Squared Capital and is among a number of dental ventures to raise capital backing in recent years, including Axiss Dental and Denty’s.
With animals, birds, dinosaur eggs, and even buses, ‘Dento Jungle’ is going out of its way to give its patients, both kids and adults, a safari-like experience.