Boys shy away from dental studies; girls seeking seats on rise in State

Hyderabad: With males mostly shunning PG (Dental) study, it is female dentists who are making up for more than 80 per cent of MDS seats in government and private dental colleges in the State this year. Until completion of convener quota for admission to post-graduate dental seats in 2019-20, of the total 114 seats, a lion share of 93 seats was taken by female students while just 21 seats were taken by male students. Even in the first phase of management quota seats, 71 seats were allotted to female dentists while 37 seats to male dentists. The same trend can be seen in PG dental admissions in 2018-19.

Actually, this trend is being seen from graduation (BDS) onwards as males mostly prefer to join the more fancied MBBS course rather than doing BDS. Even if they fail to crack the medical entrance test to get an MBBS seat in the first attempt, they prefer to go for long term coaching or give multiple attempts for achieving their goal of becoming a doctor. It is not the case with female students.

Dr Priyanka Marthineni, president of Telangana Dentists Association, mentioned a few reasons as to why females are a big majority in dental education, both graduation and post-graduation.

"All BiPC students, both male and female aim for MBBS seats first. But in case they fail to get admission, women in both the Telugu States are content to join BDS.

There are many reasons for this. Pursuing MBBS is becoming a costly affair every year and also one needs to invest nine years at least until completion of PG (MD) as just an MBBS degree these days is not of much benefit career-wise," she said.

Studying MBBS especially in management quota in private medical colleges, parents have to spend lakhs of rupees and sometimes it touches up to a crore of rupees or more than that. Obviously, parents have second thoughts to spend so much money for daughter's MBBS study and time is also a big factor because it can lead to delay in marriages, she said.

Rather than spending money on MBBS study, parents think they can get their daughter married grandly with that money, she added. Dr Priyanka also said that no need for emergency duties and night shifts, the opportunity to run an own clinic and work at your own pace and convenience are also some of the reasons as to why girl students prefer to join BDS and thereafter MDS more than the boys.

Giving his perspective on female students preference for dental education, Dr Karunkar Reddy, Vice-chancellor of Kaloji Narayana Rao Health University said that its been the case for a long time.

"While male students are in a big majority in case of engineering study its exactly the opposite when it comes to medical study. Female students are the highest when it comes to pursuing dental education, while in MBBS study they are also in good numbers matching the male students," he said.