BDS in India: Duration changed to 5.5 years, mandatory Internship, Credit based system introduced

New Delhi: After MBBS, now major modifications are going to be introduced in the undergraduate dental education too with the introduction of new Draft Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course regulations, which increases the course duration to five-and-a-half years and includes a mandatory one-year internship and a semester system following the footsteps of medical education.

As per the new Draft Regulations, apart from the mandatory internship and semester based evaluation system, a competency-based approach has been proposed for addressing the outcomes of the training. In the new system, credit hours shall be assigned to each courses and choice based credits would be available for the students so that they get to pick certain electives. Besides, the Draft also has proposed the concept of credit transfer among colleges.

Speaking about the same Dr. Anil Kumar Chandna, a member of the executive committee of the Dental Council of India which framed these regulations, informed Indian Express that the process for introducing changes in the UG dental education system has already commenced and the draft regulations have already been shared with the State and National dental colleges.

The new Draft Regulations are set to modify the course duration to five-and-a-half years including one year of internship. Besides, a proposal for changing the current annual system to a semester system has also been included in the draft and along with this the medical training of these medicos would be completed across nine semesters.

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Indian Express adds that the entire course shall be divided into mandatory core subjects for all the students, electives according to the choices of the students and the foundation courses. 

Core subjects will include subjects like medical bioethics and options for the electives include article writing, systematic reviews, sports dentistry, sleep medicine, forensic odontology, dental jurisprudence, social justice, environmental science, and yoga. 

In case of the foundation courses, the students will be provided with two types of foundation courses- the compulsory courses for enhancing the knowledge of the students and the elective foundation courses for "man making."

Speaking about the new Draft, Dr. Chandna told the daily, "The proposed changes to the undergraduate dental curriculum will completely change the way the course is taught and bring it closer to international standards. Various provisions like the credit-based system will also allow for international exchange of students in the future."

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