Dentist Qu Tiejun carries out an operation for a 9-year-old girl. [Photo/Sina Weibo]

A photo of a dentist kneeling to carry out an operation for a 9-year-old girl spread online recently.

The operation was carried out on Sept 5 by Qu Tiejun, a dentist in the dental hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University. He was somewhat surprised that he drew so much attention after the photo spread online.

"It was my duty to cure the patient. It didn't matter if I was kneeling or standing during the procedure," said Qu.

According to the dentist, the 9-year-old girl came from a village in Baoji, a city in Shaanxi province. She suffered an oral injury which required surgery.

"I had to do the operation by kneeling because the mouth was only 5 mm and could not be seen with a common surgical microscope," said Qu.

The doctor put an operation mirror on his head and had to kneel down in order to get a proper angle for him to see the injured part of the girl's mouth.

By kneeling, Qu took 40 minutes to complete the operation.

When asked why he did not raise up the surgical bed to do the operation, Qu explained that it still did not give suitable angle for the operation once the bed was raised.

A nurse took the photo of Qu's kneeling operation and put it on her WeChat and before she knew it the photo spread online.