PAKISTAN currently has 72 private and 42 public-sector medical colleges compared to 42 private and 17 public-sector facilities meant for dentistry, indicating the low priority accorded to the field. The federal health authorities have recently reduced medical and dental college admission test (MDCAT) criterion for the current year for admission to dental institutions when it should be similar to that of medical institutions. Such disparities need to be eliminated.

Quality should be given weightage over quantity. Dentistry is a manually dexterous oral healthcare profession and should not be treated as some second-grade domain of healthcare.

The existing four-year programme should be upgraded to five years with the inclusion of new dental specialties. All the allied healthcare professions, like pharmacy, physiotherapy and nursing, have five-year programmes, but the dental profession is continuing with the outdated trend probably due to the myopic vision of a few stakeholders because of whom the signed Charter on Dental Education 2015 for a five-year programme is still awaiting implementation.

There are already concerns that our dental graduates may soon face de-recognition, acceptance or preference issues in certain countries because of their four-year degrees.

The five-year programme will improve the clinical skills of our graduates and project a positive academic image of Pakistan at the World Federation for Medical Education and other inter-national platforms. There is a need to establish a regulatory body for dentistry to address issues specific to the dental profession, licensing policy and other matters. Besides, all dental colleges should be headed only by relevant professionals.

Prof Shahjahan Katpar
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2022