Ludhiana, March 14
Effusive Punjabi bonhomie was in evidence at a felicitation function, ‘Abhinandan’, organised by the local branch of the Indian Dental Association (IDA) here last evening. The new national president of IDA, Dr Bhagwant Singh, the new president of the Dental Council of India (DCI), Dr Anil Kohli, and the additional director-general of dental services in the armed forced, Major-Gen Dr Paramjit Singh, all three from Punjab, were honoured at the function.

Dr Kohli unfolded several steps being taken by the DCI to improve the quality of dental surgeons in the country. He said a new postgraduate course, equivalent to the MDS, would be introduced from the next academic session to enable private dental surgeons to upgrade their qualification. The new course, with international acceptance, would be the first such course available to the dental professionals in the armed forces.

According to Dr Kohli, around 190 dental colleges in the country were turning out nearly 18,000 dental graduates every year but not more than 10 per cent of them could get admission to the postgraduate course, currently offered in dental colleges. He pointed out that a large number of dental colleges were lacking in infrastructure facilities and 15 of these, inspected recently, had been given a month’s time to comply with the norms fixed for dental colleges.

The DCI president maintained that bringing about transparency and accountability in the working of the council were among his top priorities.

Speaking at the function, Dr Bhagwant Singh, who took over as the national president of the body in January this year, elaborated several plans of the IDA to create awareness about oral health and, at the same time, update the knowledge of dental surgeons in the country throughout the year.

Beginning with the first of a series of 50 dental carnivals from April this year, he said the programme for dental-check up of children and preventive care would be further expanded to lay more stress on the rural population. The IDA had taken up the preparation of a data base of skilled dental manpower. Further, a plan was afoot to hold seminars for dental professionals as a continuing programme and the first such seminar would be held at Chennai in June this year.

“We are also trying to achieve the objective of involving younger professionals in the mainstream of the IDA. A youth forum of the association will be launched at Pune in October 2005 to achieve this. A CDE accreditation programme, under which points will be awarded to dental surgeons for attending a specific number or more of the CDEs to update their knowledge is also in the offing,” Dr Bhagwant Singh added.

Major-Gen Dr Paramjit Singh, who was slated to take over as DG of the dental services in the armed forces later this year, spelt out the opportunities for dental surgeons in the Army.

Among other speakers at the function were Dr L.S. Chawla, former Vice-Chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Dr Vimal K. Sikri, president, and Dr Puneet Girdhar, secretary of the Punjab state branch of the IDA, Dr Vivek Saggar, president, and Dr KBS Kuckreja, secretary of the local chapter and Dr J.S. Judge, convener.