Students of Bachelor in Dental Sciences (BDS) courses in government dental colleges can have Sanskrit as an optional subject from next year.
This move, according to Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas, will help students understand the ancient culture and the practices which were put to use in dentistry.
Speaking at the Graduation Day ceremony of Government Dental College on Thursday, he said he had visited Udaipur to look into the traditional methods used to treat dental problems and found that the knowledge of Sanskrit helped understanding traditional practices.
“There is a need to integrate the practices from different systems of medicine across the world into the present system of dentistry. An integrated system of dentistry will be set up in government dental colleges across the state and Rs 1.2 crore has been allocated for the purpose,” Ramdas said.
The minister interacted with the students and also offered to discuss with the graduating batch of 2012 to understand the reasons for the decline in the interest in BDS courses.
The graduating students, expressing concern, told the minister that there was a need to appoint more dentists at government hospitals.
They said the number of doctors exceeded the actual number of jobs. Forty five students graduated from the 2012 batch of the Government Dental College.