Dentistry School to treat 128,000 patients every year

Islamabad:The Pakistani population has a poor concept of oral hygiene, resulting in high incidence of oral diseases. As such, the need to have a specialised state-of-the-art school of dentistry in Islamabad was always felt. All developed and developing countries have already established such dental centers to provide dental health care to the general population and to produce under-graduate and post-graduate dental specialists in order to meet domestic and international needs.

The PM’s Special Assistant for Health Dr. Faisal Sultan expressed these views while speaking at an event held at the School of Dentistry here on Monday.

The World Health Organization’s recommendations regarding dental surgeon versus population ratio is 1:20,000 whereas in Pakistan, the ratio is 1:42,000 in the urban areas and 1:500,000 in the rural areas; this poor ratio has resulted in high Decayed Missing and Filled Teeth (DMFT) and Decayed, Missing and Filled Surfaces (DMFS), which eventually lead to high morbidity.

Dr. Faisal said, the School of Dentistry, which is first of its kind in the capital, will fulfill numerous objectives. Firstly, 128,000 per annum patients will be examined, investigated and treated in this centre. Teaching and training of 100 BDS students for five years will improve the dismal dental surgeons versus population ratio. Moreover, reaching and training of 8-12 students of FCPS/MDS in each specialty of dentistry will be carried out in 4 years, which means that 56 specialists with major degrees will be produced; this will help improve the dental specialist versus population ratio, which is very low at the moment.

Dr. Faisal said, the School of Dentistry will teach and train at least 4-6 MPhil/PhD in basic as well as clinical subjects of dentistry. It will also aim for international collaborations, student exchange programmes, faculty development programmes, and capacity building of national and international dental colleges through regular trainings, workshops, and seminars.

The SAPM hoped that the School of Dentistry would carry out research regarding existing nature of dental diseases, prevention and their management, and document and produce materials and publication to disseminate information about dental diseases and their prevention. “The School of Dentistry can generate a lot of revenue from private and paying patients who need dentures, crowns and bridges, dental implants, orthodontic appliance, etc.,” he concluded.