Dental Surgeon: An Underrated Profession in India

Human Beings are complex creatures. Either is it physically, or mentally. We were evolved millions of years ago with a visceral body structure predestined to decay at some point of our lives. Kardashev’s system of assessing civilizations ranks us at 0.7 of the seven types or categories of advancement. In order to be better, every individual in some way contributes for the global development. Since every action has an equal and opposite reaction, overdoing of work and failing to maintain a healthy work life balance leads to body illness or sometimes life threatening diseases. Although people don’t neglect when they are ill or injured, but about one crucial part of the body they take things too much for granted. Blame it on the careless attitude, but a lot of people don’t buy into dental problems. They worry only when the situation is past the period of ignorance and their dental demands an expert examination.

While the profession holds importance in overseas countries, things aren’t going well in India. Considering India is a developing country with a tricky mix of urban and rural class of people, the awareness about the occupation is strictly limited. The stats articulately justify this fact. While for every 1700 of population, there is one doctor, for every 10,000 of urban and 13,000 of rural population, there is just one dentist. Not that people are having vibranium tooth-set but they hardly care about losing a few pearls from their inheritance.

One significant contemplating mindset of Indian citizens is that dental problems at maximum can only culminate with Oral Cancer as compared to other parts of the body. This detrimental level of nescience collaterally affects the demand of dentists in the country. The trouble isn’t about having fewer professionals. It’s about the requirement of one which is too less to be rewarding for an individual aspiring to be one. The quintessential belief of a lot of people is that M.B.B.S (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) is more advantageous than BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) in terms of job placement and monetary benefits. The latter reason is subjective but the former one is not very accurate. Both MBBS and BDS are four-year degree courses which are highly competitive and hard to pursue. No doubt in MBBS a person gets to explore the whole body and attains more knowledge but BDS is a specialization course which involves equally comprehensive study albeit about one part of your body.

Another crucial element is about self-esteem. There is a fine line in between a doctor and a dentist and that line is created by the element of prestige. People tend to respect doctors more than a dentist which is disappointing considering how much seriously the profession is taken by the people living abroad. Particularly in United States, dentists are appreciated more than doctors since mandatory checkup is must for all. Likewise, people there are conscious about dental health care too. As it is said, “It takes two to tango”, both the people and government need to reappraise the value of dental healthcare.