Dental health important for astronauts, got 2 of my wisdom teeth removed before space travel: Shukla

Mumbai, Dec 24 (PTI) Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian to reach the International Space Station, on Wednesday said he had two of his wisdom teeth removed before the space travel because although astronauts are trained to handle emergency medical situations, they cannot perform dental surgery on a spacecraft.

He was speaking at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay along with Group Captain Prasanth Nair and Group Captain Angad Pratap, who have been shortlisted for 'Gaganyaan', country's first human spaceflight mission.

Group Captain Shukla, an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer and test pilot, completed his maiden space voyage as part of the Axiom-4 mission, a commercial spaceflight supported by ISRO and NASA, and operated by Axiom Space, earlier this year.

"Your dental health is extremely important. During the selection, a lot (of aspiring astronauts) got their teeth extracted," he said.

Explaining further, Shukla said wisdom teeth are removed when one is trained to go to space.

"You are trained medically to take care of any emergency or any situation that comes onboard because there is no ready help available. If there is one thing you cannot do is dental surgery. So they make sure that you will not have any problem before you launch," he said.

"I have got two of my wisdom teeth extracted," the astronaut added.

He said Nair has three of his teeth extracted, while Pratap has four molars removed.

"If you want to be an astronaut, you have to give up on your wisdom," Shukla quipped. PTI PR NP