The role of continuing dental education in clinical practice

The dental education forms the foundation of professional lives for the dentists with respect to students, faculties, and curriculum which are considered the main aspects of the dental education. The important perspectives of these three arenas should be analyzed with plausible suggestions for improvising them. In order to meet the inevitable increase in demand for training, teaching, and learning, innovative approaches are required and dental academia should be asked to respond. The educational needs can be viewed as a three-dimensional problem, increased breadth across the dental team, vertical integration within and between specialties, and the longitudinal expansion with lifelong learning and continuing professional development. The present dental curriculum needs to be reformed by correcting some inherent concerns and flaws such as inadequate clinical relevance of basic science concepts, lack of comprehensive patient care model for clinical education, and overcrowding of the curriculum. In many countries, the practice of dentistry is only permitted after passing an examination to get dental license for few years. Furthermore, this license should be renewed with essential continuing dental education, which is considered an international trend for reconciling. The Dental Council of India and the Union Government should be more stringent with reinforcing rules and regulations to assure adequate infrastructure and quality education in all the dental colleges.