Day by day time rolled on.From being a confused student became a much the same confused intern.Not much change of situation except for the half tag of DOCTOR attached to the name.The journey to reach here was not a kids play by any means too.Only a fellow dental being would well understand the efforts that goes to pass a final year exam.From clearing seven subjects ,to finding patients,to giving a practical exam in extreme conditions.Nothing is a child's play.Atleast not for normal, mediocre,self made students like me.The only day of life till date when i felt happy to become a dentist was when i got my final result that i had passed.That was the only and last proud moment of being a dentist,and that was because no one would want to go through this harsh turmoil again.
Now the true life opened up.People address you as doctors,while you haven't a clue to perform the most done dental procedures people ask you,”beta,ab to settle na life mein.Doctor bann gaye.”u smile on outside and on inside feel to hit that person hard to mock on our situation.A more predictable sentence to be heard is ‘aap to doctor ho ab,aish he aapki.khub kamaoge.’
The medical field is like a mirage.Very beautiful and lustful from far.But once you reach there you get nothing.Especially speaking of the dental field,due to a huge number of dental colleges opening up ,and the ease of admissions for even 60% marks student has detoriated the condition of dentistry.
Can you imagine that a B.D.S gets a meagre salary of 6000 rupees in India while even a clerk earns more then that.What's the use of spending a huge amount of money on such a course that even cant refund it back.A world apart,the same dentist is the most respectable and highest paid person in western countries.
I fail to understand this discrimination of position held.No doubt hard work and in long run even dentistry can earn a lucrative amount.But not as much is proclaimed it should.Either your parents should have a huge amount of money to open a fancy clinic for you or else get you admission in post graduation.
Some of them have even started searching alternate career options because of this as a means to earn money.Which is a better way rather then just depend on it.
What is needed at present to have a good medical system in a country like India is to open up more of government institutions rather then privatising the education system that runs only for money.The dentist should be respected as in what salary they are given so that the respect for the dentist remains.In his own eyes.In eyes of the world.
what do you think???what's the destiny of us dentist???
nice one...I can copy paste the whole post on my blog, just need to change BDS to MBBS :P :P ....
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I think all new dental graduates or interns face same dilemma. Dentistry in India has long way to go both on dentists and pts ends. There is always two side of the story. Believe or not but most of people in this society has inherent fear in their mind about dentists and i believe most of them are right! For instance, there has been times when we didn't get the profound anesthesia and pt is moaning, jumping throughout procedure, and at the end of the appointment we just said "well, pt was little anxious and probably dentophobic"..what the hack? what if pt was right and we are not doing our 100% that we are suppose too? If i never been to dentist in first 20 years of my life, heck yea i am going to shit out in my pants when some new dentist is doing disimpactions and hurting me. If we can change overall image of dentistry from horrific film to some decent calm film, i think dentistry has good potential to grow further in India. Of course there are other thousands parts of the puzzles those needs to be fixed as well like reservations, curriculum change, student faculty relations, better job prospects and lists goes on and on....
ReplyDeleteJust to answer your last question, i like to work were i can be appreciated and that leaves me two choices: either work in western country or work in underserved community clinics serving poor! Of course I need more money even before i consider second choice. Perhaps combinations of both?