Prosthodontics is the branch of dentistry pertaining to the restoration and maintenance of oral function, comfort and appearance of the patient by the restoration of the natural teeth and/or replacement of missing teeth. This includes complete dentures, partial dentures, implant over dentures, crowns and bridges. Dr Mahesh Gantasala has been a Specialist Prosthodontist since 2003 when he completed his MDSc at Sydney University. Since then he is in private practice providing specialist services as well as he is a part time senior lecturer at Sydney Uni teaching the prosthodontic post graduate students. In 2004 he became a fellow of the college in the field of prosthodontics (FRACDS) and was the first to achieve this qualification. Dr. Mahesh has been providing prosthodontic services to veterans and Defence Force for many years. You don’t need a referral from your dentist to see him. If you are veteran and looking for specialist prosthodontist services, please give us a call. Dr. Mahesh is available at 3 locations for consultations:
Baulkham Hills – Suite 110, 10 Century Circuit, Baulkham Hills 02 8850 4525 Wentworthville – 31/15-17 Lane Street Wentworthville 02 9896 4949 Liverpool – Shop 2, 107 Moore Street Liverpool 02 9602 7815
Smartphone app
to screen for early signs of dementia
Dementia screening could be as easy as using a smartphone app that listens to elderly people speak. Testing for dementia among elderly could one day be as simple as talking into a smartphone thanks to speechanalysing technology being developed by engineers at UNSW Sydney. An app that uses machine learning technology will look at paralinguistic features of a person’s speech – such as prosody, pitch, volume and intonation – as well as testing memory recall. Dr Beena Ahmed from UNSW’s School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications is the engineering
58 THE LAST POST – 2020 SUMMER EDITION
researcher leading the development of new algorithms that will be deployed on a population-wide scale using a smartphone app. “The tool will essentially replace current subjective, time-consuming procedures that have limited diagnostic accuracy,” says Dr Ahmed, who presented a paper on her work in November at the IEEE EMB Strategic Conference on Healthcare Innovations in the US. UNSW