The Dental Council of India has sent out a proposal to the Centre for enabling a 3-year bridge course for BDS students to be able to practice as MBBS professionals, which could allow them to serve in rural areas for 4 to 5 years, and fill the shortage for doctors there.

The Dental Council of India (DCI) has urged the Centre to introduce a three-year MBBS bridge course for Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) graduates so that they could work as full-fledged MBBS doctors. If BDS graduates are allowed to pursue and complete the three-year bridge course, they could serve in the rural areas of the country for four to five years, DCI president Prof Dibyendu Majumdar said here today. "We are awaiting the clearance from the Medical Council of India (MCI) in this connection," Majumdar said.

The DCI, he said, is also trying to convince the central government that much importance was required to be given to oral health care since 40 to 45 per cent of all cancers pertained to the oral cavity alone. "There is a huge budget for health and the DCI is asking for a separate budget for oral health," Majumdar said while speaking at a programme, which was held under the aegis of the Indian Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology at the Siksha 'O' Anusandhan (SOA), a deemed university.

Majumdar said the government has already agreed to the DCI's proposal to allow dental surgeons to give death certificates in case a patient died while undergoing treatment in a dental clinic or hospital. The DCI is making efforts to ensure that the dental students were exposed to lectures by eminent teachers which would be made available to them through the web. "It will not cost the institutions anything as DCI will bear the expenditure," he said.