Dubai Healthcare City adds new dental school

Dubai: The opening of a new dental academic institution offering a full range of specialisation for post-graduates and clinical dental research at Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC), will spur the UAE’s fledgling medical education sector and help to retain talented UAE graduates.

The Dubai School of Dental Medicine (DSDM) is set to welcome its first batch of students in January 2013, Gulf News has learnt.

The institution, under the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Academic Medical Centre (AMC), will see senior international faculty guiding programmes in six specialties including paediatric dentistry, endodontics (root canal treatments), oral surgery, and orthodontics (treatment of irregularities in the teeth).

Speaking to Gulf News about the role of the new institution in the UAE’s medical education sector, the dean, professor David Wray, a veteran educator in dental care and dentistry research with four decades of experience, said it will promote talent retention. “There is a demand for post-graduate programmes in the country. The College of Dentistry at Ajman University of Science and Technology (AUST) alone has more than 150 dentistry graduates per year. These students need specialisation,” he said.

Professor Wray explained that by providing post-graduate programmes in the UAE, the students can continue to stay in the country instead of opting for universities in the UK and US, increasing the chances of retaining talent and expertise. “This will help the UAE to maintain a position where it doesn’t have to purchase expensive expatriate expertise,” he said.

The underlying goal of the institution is to also provide a secondary care resource for people who have oral disease, like oral cancer. “Currently the UAE doesn’t have a clinical network or infrastructure to manage such cases. There is also a need to create a database for dental public health,” he said.

Medical students have welcomed the opening of the UAE-based post-graduate dental institution.

Dubai-based Iranian student Dr Mahmoud Dastoori, 31, told Gulf News that after he graduated in oral medicine from the University College London (UCL), he was on the hunt for an internationally accredited post-graduation programme in orthodontics. “I researched potential universities both in the UAE and abroad. Enrolling at DSDM means I can benefit from its association with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and continue to stay in Dubai.”

Another Dubai-based student, 27-year-old Emirati Dr Batool Gaith, told Gulf News that she wanted to pursue a specialisation in paediatric dentistry in the country so she could be with her family. “I graduated in dentistry from Trinity College Dublin and wanted to return to my country. In this regard, the specialisation is a unique opportunity,” she said.