Dental Council of India acting chairman Mahesh Verma has said that the Council is doing its best to increase the total number of seats in post-graduate courses from the present 3,000 in tune with the increasing demand for dentists.
“I do agree that PG seats in dental specialities are fewer than those in medicine. PG seats in medicine are almost 40-50 per cent of the total number of MBBS seats. But the advantage in medicine is that there are as many as 35 branches. So, even if only a few seats are sanctioned in each specialisation, it adds up to a good number,” Dr. Verma said, addressing the three-day All India Dental Students Conference that he formally inaugurated at Siddhartha auditorium on Saturday.
The conference, which began on Friday, is being organised by the Indian Dental Association (IDA) in association with Sibar Institute of Dental Sciences, Dr. Sudha and Nageswara Rao Dental College and the Government Dental College. Dr. Verma said that the DCI was trying to overcome some problems to increase the PG seats. But it was keen on doing so and giving a good share of the increased seats to Andhra Pradesh, which was an important state insofar as the profession of dentistry was concerned.
Referring to the fact that the 24,000 dental graduates passing out every year had to compete for just 3,000 seats in PG, Dr. Verma said that students need not fear competition because they had already faced sufficient competition to join BDS. He advised the students to acquire additional skills like management and entrepreneurial skills to do well in their profession. Dentistry was going through a flux and was getting its due now, and, hence, students too needed to gear up to cash in on this.
T. Venugopala Rao, Registrar, Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences, felt that the Indian Medical Association too should organise a national meet of students of medicine. The university was willing to extend help to organise a state level convention of dental students if dental colleges came forward to host it by rotation. IDA national president L. Krishna Prasad urged the DCI to increase the number of PG seats. Government Dental College Principal and organising committee chairman T. Murali Mohan urged the DCI to sanction PG seats in the college. DCI executive member K. Satish Kumar Reddy, conference secretary Pradeep Chandra Shetty and others spoke.
Source: The Hindu
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