December 3, 2001	Monday	Ramazan 17, 1422

NEW DELHI, Dec 2: A folk singer from the north-eastern Indian state of Assam has won the first national innovation award for making low-cost bamboo teeth dentures, news reports said Sunday.

The Indian Express reported that Dodhi Pathak chisels cheap bamboo teeth for villagers in the Nalabari district, who can’t afford treatment by regular dentists.

The National Innovation Foundation, set up by the department of science and technology, annually awards people who solve technological problems in cost-effective and innovative ways.

Pathak’s teeth have now been registered and possibilities of commercial production are being explored.

The 48-year-old singer turned to bamboo when he lost all his front teeth in an accident in 1994.

Since he could not afford the false teeth available at the dentist, he used underground nodes of bamboo to make his own.

According to Pathak, he can chew easily and even bite into meat with ease.

The frontal incisors cost him 30 rupees (less than a dollar) and the molars 50 rupees (1 dollar). The teeth can be fixed permanently or made into dentures.

And Pathak takes 30 minutes to make a tooth, which he adds does not fall off even when a person sneezes.

To ensure pearly white teeth, Pathak coats the brown bamboo dentures with melted plastic from toothbrushes.—dpa