Dental Council calls on Health Ministry: Floss out quacks

Some 200 qualified dentists are currently in search of jobs, but finding one is as painful as pulling out your teeth. This is because the country’s health sector provides only 29 positions for dentists at hospitals and health centres, the Dental Council revealed yesterday. Many recently qualified dentists are therefore seeking jobs abroad or have to work at dental labs for uncertified dental technicians, commonly called “quacks.”

The private sector, the council said in a statement yesterday, could only accommodate approximately 350 qualified dentists in urban areas because the dental school at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex turns out 25-30 dentists yearly.

Council chairman Dr Dharmendra Rohit told Newsday, if government creates more jobs at hospitals and health centres to service the rural areas, and also cracks down on about 60-70 dental quacks, only then would qualified dentists get jobs and go into private practice. The council, he said, took issue with Tuesday’s announcement in Parliament by Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh of a shortage of dentists.

The 29 public positions for qualified dentists have not increased since 1980, Rohit told Newsday yesterday. He revealed that of the 489 registered dentists, about 200 are in search of jobs in the private sector. Since only a limited number can be absorbed in private practice, Rohit said, the rest are working for quacks.

Deyalsingh said in Parliament on Tuesday there are 67 more vacant posts for dentists, but Rohit disagreed. He said as recently as Wednesday morning, he enquired from the manager of dental health in the ministry about the availability of jobs for dentists. “The number of jobs have been 29 since 1980 at hospitals and health centres,” he said. “Is the minister saying that the ministry will create 67 more posts for dentists, or such number of positions are available but our dentists are not applying?

“Up to this morning I checked. The ministry has only 29 posts for dentists and that has been since 1980. And 25-30 dentists are qualified each year. That dentists do not want to work in the public sector is totally incorrect. All these posts are already filled.”

With 489 registered dentists and 25-30 qualifying every year, Rohit said, hundreds are on the breadline seeking jobs in private practice.

Even dentists on scholarship with an obligation to serve the government for five years, he added, are at home, while many have chosen to seek employment abroad or to further their studies.

Former president of the Dental Association of TT and council member Dr Azad Ashraph supported Rohit’s call for a crackdown on quacks by having them meet the requirements for the dental board to ascertain their credentials in order to have jurisdiction over their operations.