Rajasthan: A 1000 seats yet to find dental aspirants

Jaipur: There happens to be a growing vacuum in filling up of dental seats in private dental colleges in the country. This was proved when the second round of counselling for admission in dental colleges for BDS courses ended on Saturday, in the state of Rajasthan, leaving behind 1007 seats vacant.

Dentistry colleges are fighting hard to fill up seats as only 268 have been taken up after the 2^nd counselling round. Hopes are now pinned onto the mop up round that is to take place on 28^th August.

The state has only one government college and 15 private dental institutions that offer 1,275 seats, excluding 219 NRI and management quota seats.

The youth in the country seem to be rejecting dentistry s a lucrative profession, looking at the number of seats lying vacant.

"If a candidate is opting for dentistry as a self-supporting profession without depending on the government for jobs, then it is a good profession. There is no shortage of patients with dental problems," said Dr Pradeep Jain, Chairman, UG Admission Board, NEET 2017, Jaipur and Principal, Government Dental College.

He, however, expressed optimism regarding filling up of more seats in the coming up mop up round on 28^th August.

However, he added that seats did remain vacant for BDS courses every year.

Experts say that dentistry for aspirants relates to government employment. "If they do not get enough opportunities in getting government jobs, they will not opt for dentistry. In government, there are not sufficient vacancies for dentists. An MBBS doctor gets job up to primary health centre, but for dentists, there are no such opportunities," said Dr Harish Bhardwaj, National Vice-President, Indian Dental Association.

Dentists observe that if a patient has a dental problem, he continues to delay coming to the hospital or clinic to consult a dentist. However, in the case of any other related problem, he will be seen immediately rushing to a doctor. Dentists say that in such cases extracting tooth remains as an available option and saving the tooth at that time becomes impossible.

Dentists say that in such cases such as these extraction remains an option available. However, saving the tooth at that late hour becomes an impossibility reports TOI.