“Oral health care for the 125-crore population is one of the foremost challenges facing the health-care delivery system in India. In India, considered one of the fast growing economies in the world with excellent GDP growth rate, dental or oral health of the people still remains neglected,” K. George Varghese, Dental Council of India (DCI) member and former Principal of Government Dental College, Kottayam, has said.
Dr. Varghese told The Hindu that the burning issue was inequitable distribution of dental professionals and not insufficiency of manpower. The dentist to population ratio in India in 2004 was 1:10,000 in urban areas and 1:2,50,000 in rural areas. This clearly indicated a skewed distribution of oral health-care delivery system, he said.
Dr. Varghese said about 75% of the rural population did not have easy access to dental facilities. The lopsided situation of 85% dental surgeons practising in urban areas in a country where 68.89% of the population resides in rural areas needed to be balanced, he said.
“The dental curriculum in India lacks treatment planning sessions to teach students how to plan treatment in a case involving all specialities. In other words, they are taught to do clinical work for a particular situation, but are not trained to treat various other problems in the same patient. Once a specific treatment is completed, the students no longer see that patient and do not get an opportunity to learn from their treatment successes and failures,” he said.
He said dedicated weekly clinical seminars, case presentations, or journal clubs should be incorporated in the undergraduate curriculum.
Dr. Varghese said it was high time the DCI and the Union government stepped in to protect the interests of dental graduates and the dental profession at large.
Dental health planning
The State and the Centre should incorporate dental health planning in their agenda and allocate funds for starting dental specialty centres at all general hospitals and dental units at all taluk and primary health centres.
Dentistry should be included in the National Rural Health Mission.
Also, dental treatments should be included in government health insurance schemes such as the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna and Comprehensive Health Insurance Schemes.
Dr. Varghese stressed the need for introducing a dental licensure examination or exit examination by the Dental Council of India for granting permission to practise so as to enhance the quality of medical education.
The government should also take necessary steps to increase public awareness of the importance of dental diseases and timely treatment for the same, he said.
