But what if dental capacity increases / Why are dental treatment costs so expensive?

Mehdi Kadkhodazadeh, Secretary of the Dental Education Council of the Ministry of Health, in an interview with a Fars News Agency health reporter, stated that there are currently 42,000 active dentists in the country, adding: “According to these statistics, the country is not facing a shortage of dentists.” In the field of dentistry, we face two challenges of distributing dentists nationwide and the high cost of treatment because insurance does not play a positive role in this field.

Kadkhodazadeh, pointing out that the number of dental schools has doubled in the past two decades, said: In 1979, about 5 colleges were active in the country, in 1378, about 18 colleges were active in the country, and in the last two decades, 48 ​​dental schools in the country. They are active. The number of dental students in 1979 was about one thousand. In 1378, the number of 5,000 students is currently more than 16,000 students are teaching in the country.

He stated that currently about 1221 residents are working in the country, noting that this number was about 20 in 1979. In 1378, this number was about 400 people, so the process of training dentists in our country has been upward. In the last two decades, when the number of dental students has doubled, we face challenges such as lack of proper infrastructure and lack of faculty members, which has affected the quality of education.

“Nowhere in the world has increasing the number of dentists increased the quality of treatment services, and all domestic and international studies confirm this. The path of citizens’ oral health is prevention and health, and if we seek to strengthen treatment,” said the secretary of the Ministry of Health. The dentist distribution should be normalized. According to the Law on Justice and Education, 1866 Darik students are sent to low-income areas after graduation.

He added: “The ratio of dentists per 10,000 population in the United States is 6.1, and this figure is 5.1 in Iran, which will reach the United States per capita in 1408. In Iran, this statistic is ten years in the United States.” Which is fixed. In the Nordic countries, the rate of dental caries has dropped to zero, but the number of dentists has not increased and it has moved towards oral health management.

According to Kadkhodazadeh, increasing the capacity of dentists is not the right thing to do because the oral health index will not increase and there is no faculty commensurate with the increase in capacity in the country. On the other hand, the country does not need to increase the number of dentists.

The secretary of the Dental Education Council continued: “The laws governing universities have not left any incentive to attract faculty to the university. Young dentists who are committed to the coefficient of work leave the country after passing the project period and we are witnessing the expulsion of elites instead of attracting elites. To stay the elites for which the country has paid.

He stressed: “Our challenge is to discuss the distribution of power and the lack of insurance support in discussing patients’ costs in the field of treatment, because the role of insurance is important in reducing people’s payments.” We have the largest number of dentists in Tehran, and my question is that despite the large number of dentists in the capital, people do not have a problem with treatment? People can not afford dental treatment.

He said: “Increasing the number of dentists actually means wasting public funds, about 2,000 students are recruited annually and a large number graduate. On the other hand, between 300 and 400 people take the national exam annually and come abroad after being accepted.”

According to Kadkhodazadeh, in the national exam, the criterion for acceptance is 30 percent, some of whom do not get the same grade. On the other hand, some of these students have not even visited the patient during their studies, so we can not work on the patient in the country. Is. The number of our colleges has increased unreasonably over the last two decades, which has led to an increase in induction therapy in the community, which is a serious threat to public health.

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