Medicine to bite into dental pie

AHMEDABAD: The opening up of new medical colleges and the addition of seats in existing colleges may hit admissions to dentistry courses .

Last year , 172 seats in dental colleges were vacant because of lower cutoffs for medical courses . And this year , with the increase of 450 seats , the officials of the joint admission committee for medical and para-medical courses (JACMPC ) fear that as many as 400 dental college seats could be wasted .

According to JACMPC officials , the reason for dental seats falling vacant was high fees. Moreover , dentistry had lost its shine as a career option , they said .

"Annual fees for a self-financed medical college is nearly Rs 3 lakh , while a self-financed dental college would charge over Rs 2 lakh a year . A student who can afford Rs 2 lakh will be willing to spend a lakh more for medicine ," an official said .

Officials say that the state has 2,405 seats for MBBS and 900 for bachelor of dental surgery . At least 4,857 students qualify for these 3,305 seats . Looking at initial trends , there is a possibility that because of the increase in medical seats , not many students would opt for dental courses .

The official said that of the 4,857 students , around 15% would seek admission only in government-run grant-in-aid colleges where fees are much lower . An official calculated that around 20% of students are from the middle-income group who cannot afford high fees and hence would opt for pharmacy or other para-medical courses where the fees are lower . In all , 11,746 students who cleared Class XII exams from the GSHEB had applied for admission in para-medical and medical courses .

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