Accelerated Dental Training. How To Become A Dentist In 5 Hours
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- Published: Tuesday, 12 July 2022 07:46
- Written by Peter Ingle
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It is claimed that there is a shortage of dentists in the UK, especially working within the NHS. MP’s shocked by the horror stories that they are hearing from constituents, would like to see more dentists trained, with some pushing for a new dental school in their area.
To try and increase numbers, the GDC following the shutdown of the ORE examinations during the pandemic, are now trying to catch up with the backlog. Corporates and dental colleges are also working together to entice overseas registered dentists to work in the UK.
In Malaysia there is an alternative approach to dealing with the demand for economic dental treatment. Writing in the Malaysian newspaper, The Star, reporter Alizia Shah observed that it usually takes six years training to become a fully registered dentist. But there is a short-cut for the unscrupulous.
In a run-down shop in the Setapak district of Kuala Lumpur, the journalist attended a course on ‘fixing veneers.’ Trainer Hyati had a young volunteer who was apparently a regular subject, for the day’s two students. She appeared to have good teeth leaving the reporter puzzled that she was having veneers.
The journalist then describes the use of a retractor that looked “far from sanitary,” and the subject having 16 teeth covered with composite. The result achieved after three hours, was “ghastly” and “unnatural.” The training, lasted in total five hours. At the end, the reporter and her course mate were given a certificate for completing the dental course, as well as a starter kit of materials, to start work immediately. Before the veneer course, Hyati had been training another ‘student’ in injectables, being the model herself. Hyati would have earned about RM 5000 (a little under £1000) that day, and her busy business often operates through weekends. Some of the other courses that she offers include, “braces”, “whitening injections” platelet rich plasma injections, and denture repairs.
The treatment did not appear to be a great success, with the volunteer at the end of her treatment saying, “It feels weird. Is this how it is supposed to feel?” Hyati told her students later, that reassuring clients was “part of the game.” It is not uncommon for them to ask to have their veneers removed, which attracts a further fee of 50 RM per tooth.
This is not a new problem in Malaysia, with the arrest in the capital some years ago of an unqualified dentist, who had been “practicing” for 29 years.
Nor are fake dentists restricted to Asia. In 2010 it was revealed that as many as one in five Italian dentists were unqualified, one being a plumber who had been filling and extracting teeth for 20 years. A notable difference was that the fines for illegal practice in Malaysia were far higher than those set in Italy,
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