BDS Course
Introduction
Bachelor of Dental Science (BDS) course is a dentistry course of four-year duration. If the student wants to opt for an internship then it can be extended to five years. The BDS course is focused on dental health and hygiene and the syllabus of this course is decided by Indian health care. This is one of the most sought medical courses in India after MBBS. In this article, we will discuss the BDS course briefly so students who want to pursue the course can have proper details regarding this.
BDS course details
There is an entrance exam required to get admission for the BDS course in some good medical college or university. Apart from that, you can also write to the college or university to get admission. This is the most popular and designated medical course and the BDS is the only dental surgery education program in India. This medical course is equivalent to MBBS and the graduates get the domain ‘Dr’ that can use with their name. During this course, the students get to study dental problems, dentures, and surgeries. There are numerous job opportunities available for the BDS graduates in the hospitals and some other industries such as dental surgery equipment designing and manufacturing. The fees for this course differ from college to college.
In the BDS course, the student not only read the books and understands about the oral health but they have to do a lot of practical medical practices such as making dentures and casting the fake teeth according to the size of the patient’s mouth. Along with the teeth, the BDS course also includes the study of gums and tongue because it is a part of oral health. Nowadays the dental issues are increasing in patients because of the low-quality food and poor oral hygiene. The oral health issues are not only limited to the mouth of a patient but they are indirectly connected to heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer. Hence the demand for dentists is increasing in the medical sector. The main thing about dental health is that all age groups have dental issues for different reasons. In children, the cavities are developed due to excessive consumption of chocolates and candies, in adults, the oral issues develop due to poor oral hygiene and unhealthy food, and the old age people suffer from dental issues due to the lack of strength in their gums and teeth. So the dentists are needed to promote and support oral health and help the patients who are suffering severe pain due to their dental problems.
Eligibility for BDS
If the one year of internship is counted, the BDS course is a five-year duration course and it is a UG degree program. There are both full-time and part-time courses available for BDS depending upon the college or university. There are a lot of well-reputed and well-known colleges and universities in India that provide the BDS course. After the 12th class, most of the students choose BDS for their medical studies. But there are eligibility criteria that the student must fulfil to go for the BDS course. The eligibility criteria are the following:
- The student must have passed the 10+2 exam with the science stream with the subjects biology, chemistry, English, and physics.
- The student needs to scope 50% marks in the 12th exams to appear in the entrance exam for BDS and if the student is from the reserved category, the minimum percentage needed in the 12th is 40%.
- A NEET candidate must attain a minimum of 450 marks to take admission in some government dental college. Otherwise, 50 percentile is enough in the NEET exam to get admission to private dental college.
Job opportunities after BDS
BDS graduates have multiple job opportunities such as hospitals, clinics, medical colleges, dental product manufacturing firms, etc. There are plenty of job profiles that a BDS student can get after completion of the course. The following are the job profiles that a BDS graduate can get after the BDS course:
- Dental surgeon
- Dental health consultant
- Oral pathologist
- A profession in medical college
- Medical writer
Some of the BDS graduates join medical colleges and work as a tutor and give a lecture to the students. Moreover, if some dentist has extensive knowledge and experiences in his field then they can also contribute to writing books and journals that help others in research works. Medical writing is one of the most significant ventures to do because it helps in improving the future of oral health.
Salary after BDS
The dentists make a decent amount of salary even in their earlier years. Initially, the dentists might get up to INR 30000. Along with experience and hard work their pay rates get increased on large scale. If you want to start your dental clinic then you came to make even more money which depends on the quality of services you provide to your patients because the private clinics get popular due to their service quality. The senior dentists make a salary of more than 6 lakh per annum. In the dental equipment manufacturing companies, there is a handsome salary provided to the dentists because they can contribute their knowledge in making the right design of the dental equipment.
Conclusion
After MBBS, the BDS course is the most popular medical course that is chosen by the students. Some students even study MDS after completing their BDS. The dentists have a significant contribution to the medical field and people have started to recognize the importance of oral health. This is the reason people started to get dental check-up regularly which was not the case in previous years. This medical course is full of interesting knowledge and experience and there are ample amount of opportunities for the students. If you are willing to pursue BDS then this article might have helped you make the right choice. We hope that now you are completely aware of the course. We wish you good luck for your future in your medical studies.
