Research Wing Mandatory for Every Dental College: Dental Council of India

Taking a strong note of the lack of research taking place in the field of Dentistry in India, the Dental Council Of India has ordered that it will be mandatory for every Dental college in India to have a research wing.

"We have noticed that there is a lack of research in dental sciences. Only few dental colleges in India have research centres. In a bid to promote the research in the dental field, we have made it mandatory that every dental college should have research wing associated with it," said Dr Anil Kumar Chandna, member, DCI told India Today.

The new rule will apply equally to existing dental colleges as well the news ones who will apply to dental council of India for establishing a dental college.

Currently, it is reported that only a handful of dental colleges have a dedicated research wing and actively participate in research. These include AIIMS, Maualana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences ( MAIDS) in New Delhi as well as King George Dental College in Lucknow, UP.

"With this move, students studying dental sciences will also be actively engaged in research work. In India, there is a lack of research in dental field, only few research papers go for publication in reputed national and international journals from the dental colleges. That too, when dental sciences is such a lucrative field and have a great scope," Dr Chandna said.

Recently, a multi-stage randon sampling study was done on 2000 dentists from 40 dental colleges across the country. The results, which were published in Journal of Pharmacy and Bio-allied Sciences clearly stated that "research in the dental field is progressing at mightier speed worldwide, but unfortunately representation of India at this platform is negligible"