The Dental Council of India has sent a proposal to the Union health ministry to extend the four year undergraduate dentistry course to five years, which will include a year-long internship programme, council president Dr Dibyendu Mazumder said here on Monday.
Mazumder was in the city to inaugurate the all India faculty development workshop in conservative dentistry and endodontics at Sri Ramachandra University. If this is approved it would once again become mandatory for all undergraduate dental students to undergo a one-year-internship before getting their BDS degree.
Internships were first introduced in 1992-93 after dental science was recognized as a professional course like medicine and engineering. But BDS was turned into an "all classroom" course in 2007 as the then DCI committee thought students weren't serious about it. However, Mazumder said he felt that internships played a crucial role as it gives students a hands-on experience. India has 249 private dental colleges and 40 government colleges -- jointly producing 23,380 dentists a year.
If the Union health ministry approves this, the students after completing four years of BDS in theory, will have to undertake the year-long clinical programme, just like what the Medical Council of India has done with the MBBS course. He encouraged dental students to do at least three months of rural service during the internship programme.
People in rural and semi-urban areas, Mazumder said, had very little access to dental care. He also urged the state governments to appoint dentists in the public health centres (PHC). Dental colleges also should adopt a few PHCs in their state to provide dental cover to the rural population, he said.
University pro-chancellor (research) Dr SP Thyagarajan said the integrated curriculum in medical education and faculty development introduced by his university had become a model that was being emulated by others in the country.
Internships were first introduced in 1992-93 after dental science was recognized as a professional course like medicine and engineering. But BDS was turned into an 'all classroom' course in 2007 as the then DCI committee thought students weren't serious about it
Mazumder was in the city to inaugurate the all India faculty development workshop in conservative dentistry and endodontics at Sri Ramachandra University. If this is approved it would once again become mandatory for all undergraduate dental students to undergo a one-year-internship before getting their BDS degree.
Internships were first introduced in 1992-93 after dental science was recognized as a professional course like medicine and engineering. But BDS was turned into an "all classroom" course in 2007 as the then DCI committee thought students weren't serious about it. However, Mazumder said he felt that internships played a crucial role as it gives students a hands-on experience. India has 249 private dental colleges and 40 government colleges -- jointly producing 23,380 dentists a year.
If the Union health ministry approves this, the students after completing four years of BDS in theory, will have to undertake the year-long clinical programme, just like what the Medical Council of India has done with the MBBS course. He encouraged dental students to do at least three months of rural service during the internship programme.
People in rural and semi-urban areas, Mazumder said, had very little access to dental care. He also urged the state governments to appoint dentists in the public health centres (PHC). Dental colleges also should adopt a few PHCs in their state to provide dental cover to the rural population, he said.
University pro-chancellor (research) Dr SP Thyagarajan said the integrated curriculum in medical education and faculty development introduced by his university had become a model that was being emulated by others in the country.
Internships were first introduced in 1992-93 after dental science was recognized as a professional course like medicine and engineering. But BDS was turned into an 'all classroom' course in 2007 as the then DCI committee thought students weren't serious about it
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