Charting the future of dentistry education

With over 32,000 dentists passing out from Dental colleges every year, India leads the world as far as number of dentists are concerned.

- Lt Gen Dr. Vimal Arora

Add to this another 7-8000 PGs every year, India possesses a formidable army of dental professionals. With this inherent advantage, the oral health of our population should have been the best in the world. However, as per WHO, over 80% of adults in India have dental caries, and over 50% gum disease. WHO recommends a dentist to population ratio of 1:7,500, whereas many Indian cities boast a ratio of 1:5,000. However, the dentist to population ratio in rural areas stands at 1:80,000, which is woefully inadequate, leaving the majority of India without basic oral care.

While planning for the future of dentistry, it's important to have opportunities for employment for the dental surgeons. There are hardly any vacancies in the government/public/other sectors. Though, the Government of India (GoI) has launched a very ambitious healthcare program; PMJAY which has an All-India reach, it does not recognize oral health as the focus area, whereby the employment opportunities to the dental surgeons have been completely denied at the cost of oral health of millions of Indians. Even after having scientific evidence of leading the world in the incidence of dental diseases and oral cancer, the GoI has not recognized dentistry as the focus area for healthcare.