The perspectives and perceptions of dental education in the West and an overview of dental education in India

Abstract

The dental education forms the foundation of the professional lives of the dentists. In the context of the student, faculty and the curriculum constitute the main aspects of the dental education. The important perspectives of these three arena are analyzed with plausible suggestions for improvising them. The present technology-savvy "Y generation" has evolving educational needs and has to be provided with more diverse and interactive methodologies for learning and also involving information technology applications. The faculties both in terms of quality and number have profound impact on the outcomes of the dental education. The present dental curriculum needs to be reformed by correcting some inherent concerns and flaws such as inadequate clinical relevance of basic science concepts, lack of comprehensive patient care model for clinical education, and overcrowding of the curriculum. The dental education in India, despite its tremendous growth since the beginning, has some significant issues regarding the quality of dental education mostly in some private dental colleges. The Dental Council of India and the Union Government should be more stringent with reinforcing rules and regulations to assure adequate infrastructure and quality education in all the private dental colleges. More number of job postings for dentists should be created in the government hospitals, and the present inappropriately limited number of postgraduate seats should also be increased to assure the viability of the dental profession in future.