KARACHI: CPSP to launch 2-year diploma in dentistry
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, March 18: In view of the poor dental education and training situation in the country, College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) has decided to expand its postgraduate training and research programmes, it was learnt officially. Among different measures, the CPSP wants to introduce 2 years diploma programme in different dentistry specialities and has also planned to allocate Rs5 million for faculty development, publication of monographs and research support.
During a recent national moot in dentistry at the CPSP, it was revealed that there were 19 undergraduate institutions in the public and private sectors with a total capacity of 758 students, while there were 5,817 dental doctors registered with the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, believed to be catering to the needs of over 150 million population of the country.
As far as the availability of specialists was concerned, about 260 were registered with the PMDC, who were understood to man the undergraduate dental institutions and also providing the specialist care. The CPSP has now decided to launch a 2-year diploma programme (DCPS) in five specialities, including Orthodontics, Oral surgery, Periodontics, Prosthodontics and Operative surgery. The training of DCPS, which is being developed on a format similar to the fellowship, will be completed in CPSP accredited institutions.
The CPSP president, Prof M Sultan Farooqui, said that there was dearth of availability of basic data on dental health issues due to a lack of research, while paucity of publications for increasing public awareness of common dental issues and disease was also a problem.
He informed this scribe that CPSP would allocate an amount to the tune of Rs5 million during the next three years for carrying out works pertaining to faculty development and publication of monographs addressing common dental health problems for free distribution and to extend financial support to FCPS Part-II trainees on community/population-based studies of dental health issues.
Under the CPSP programmes, dental teachers working in the CPSP approved training institutions or slots will be allowed to participate in mandatory workshops free of cost. This facility will be available for a limited period, Mr Farooqui added.
He said that the CPSP also wanted to provide partial funding to one teaching institution in each province from those approved for postgraduate training by the CPSP to undertake pilot projects on dental health services for a specified time. Experts, while deliberating dental education status and services in the country observed with concern that the scant number of dental specialists had exposed the country to a situation where 576,000 patients had access to one dental specialist, adds APP.
Yet, the disparity in the number of dental care professionals and population, reporting increasingly with diseases effecting their gums and hence the teeth, was said to be enormous calling for an urgent need for well-qualified teachers in enough numbers to teach and train no less than 3,000 students currently enrolled for dental education.
