The Guardian of Children’s Smiles

Born on 15 March in Amritsar, Punjab, to Sukhdev Singh and Iqbal Kaur Chawla, Harpinder Singh Chawla grew up in the shadow of the Golden Temple. He graduated in dentistry from the Government Dental College and Hospital, Amritsar, in 1967 and completed his postgraduate specialisation in pedodontics and preventive dentistry at the same institution in 1970.

That year he joined the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh as a registrar. Over the next four decades he rose steadily—lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor, and finally Professor and Head of the Oral Health Sciences Centre—serving until his superannuation in 2008 and continuing thereafter as Professor Emeritus. Under his leadership the centre became a national reference point for the oral health of children.

Dr. Chawla dedicated his career to the smallest patients. His research explored caries trends in schoolchildren, phenytoin-induced gingival overgrowth in epileptic children, safe sedation techniques, early management of malocclusions, and minimally invasive approaches that preserve developing teeth. He published widely in peer-reviewed journals and trained generations of pediatric dentists. He served as President of the Asian Academy of Preventive Dentistry and as an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences and the Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry.

In 2006 he received the Punjab Ratan. The following year the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri for his contributions to medicine.

Married to Kiran Chaudhary and the father of a son and a daughter, Prof. Harpinder Singh Chawla has spent a lifetime ensuring that children can smile without pain. In the clinics of PGIMER and in the practices of the many specialists he mentored, his quiet legacy endures: skilled, gentle care that protects the oral health—and the confidence—of the next generation.