CAREER ASPIRATIONS AND REASONS FOR CHOOSING DENTISTRY AS A CAREER – A SURVEY OF DENTAL STUDENTS IN GANDHI DENTAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL, BHUBANESWAR

Abstract

The motivations for choosing a career are yet not clearly defined. The purpose of this study was to investigate why students at Gandhi Dental College had chosen dentistry as their career, to consider the factors that had influenced their decision and to study their different career goals. Career aspiration of Dental students was assessed with the help of a questionnaire which was distributed among dental students and interns. Answers were then analyzed to find differences between the groups. The overall response rate was 86%. Main reason to enter this profession was their own interest (53.91%). 57.39% of the undergraduates and interns aspired to do post-graduation for better salaries and good job opportunities. 62.17% wanted to go abroad for further studies commonly to the USA and wished for some career counseling in this regard. When asked whether they would advice their friends to take up dentistry 81.74% said yes mainly because of good scope while 18.26% said no due to factors like increased stress and saturation in this field.

Full text

Special articles Annals and Essences of Dentistry
Vol. - III Issue 2 Apr – jun 2011 108
doi:10.5368/aedj.2011.3.2.5.1
CAREER ASPIRATIONS AND REASONS FOR CHOOSING DENTISTRY AS A CAREER – A
SURVEY OF DENTAL STUDENTS IN GANDHI DENTAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL,
BHUBANESWAR.
Garla BK
1
Professor and Head, Department of Community Dentistry
1,Gandhi Dental College, Badaraghunathpur , Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India.
ABSTRACT
The motivations for choosing a career are yet not clearly defined. The purpose of this study was to investigate why
students at Gandhi Dental College had chosen dentistry as their career, to consider the factors that had influenced their
decision and to study their different career goals. Career aspiration of Dental students was assessed with the help of a
questionnaire which was distributed among dental students and interns. Answers were then analyzed to find differences
between the groups. The overall response rate was 86%. Main reason to enter this profession was their own interest
(53.91%). 57.39% of the undergraduates and interns aspired to do post-graduation for better salaries and good job
opportunities. 62.17% wanted to go abroad for further studies commonly to the USA and wished for some career
counseling in this regard. When asked whether they would advice their friends to take up dentistry 81.74% said yes
mainly because of good scope while 18.26% said no due to factors like increased stress and saturation in this field.
KEY WORDS:.career aspiration, Dentistry, Career
INTRODUCTION
Choosing a career is one of the most important
decisions you will ever make. The choice of Dentistry as a
career could offer prestige, relative autonomy, income
above average, the opportunities to help others and
creative and artistic challenges. His or her work can also
influence the choices made in other spheres of life1.
Most dentists practicing today made their career
decision is late high school or early college. Dentists
occupy an important position in society as professional
health care workers. The opportunity to participate in
dental education in many countries, especially in the
developing ones, is limited to a small percentage of the
community. Also understanding students reasons to join a
dental school and their future career goals may help
recruiters in designing appropriate and effective
recruitment materials. Understanding students reasons
may aid recruiters to provide them a complete and
accurate picture of the profession. It has also been
suggested that having an insight into the motivations of
those contemplating dental studies may assist in the
evolution of dental curriculum and a better understanding
of students reasons for entering the dental profession and
may facilitate a fruitful interaction between student and
teacher2.
Aims and Objectives
The purpose of this study was to investigate why
students at Gandhi Dental College and Hospital,
Bhubaneswar had chosen Dentistry as their career, to
consider the back ground factors that had influenced their
decision and to study their different career goals.
Material and Methods
Career aspirations of Dental Students was assessed
with the help of a predesigned questionnaire which was
distributed among Dental students divided into 5 groups
(1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Year undergraduate and interns) at
Gandhi Dental College and Hospital Bhubaneswar, India.
Approval of the questionnaire and research methodology
was received from the college ethics board. Before
conducting the main survey a pilot survey was conducted
(n=25)where the validity and reliability of the questionnaire
was ascertained. The questionnaires were collected
immediately after completion on the same day.
The study was conducted between 1st February and 15th
April 2010. The data was analysed using SPSS software
(version 10)
Results
Total sample size was 266. Response rate was 86%
(n=230). Data base showing the number of participants,
their class wide distribution and their gender is tabulated(
Table I)

Special articles Annals and Essences of Dentistry
Vol. - III Issue 2 Apr – jun 2011 109
Table
1.
Data base showing the number of
participants, their class wide distribution and their
gender is tabulated
Groups Total
Students
Participants
Male Female Total
Respon
dents
1
st
BDS 47 25 22 47
2
nd
BDS 57 16 31 47
3
rd
BDS 47 15 20 35
4
th
BDS 61 25 30 55
Interns 54 16 30 46
Total 266 97 133 230
(86%)
When the question was asked regarding reasons for
choosing Dentistry as a career 53.91% (n=124) had
chosen dentistry due to their own interest, while 14.34%
(n=33) due to parents interest, 12.61% (n=29) due to
potential income, 11.74% (n=27) had chosen dentistry
due to unavailability of other desired courses and lastly
7.39% (n=17) due to peer pressure (Graph-1) . There was
no difference of response between the male and the
female students. Peer pressure and unavailability of other
desired courses were the least common reasons. 57.39%
(132/230) of the under graduates including the interns
wanted to study furthers i.e. do their post graduation after
completion for better salaries and good job opportunities
while the second common choice was administrative
services i.e. 13.48% (n=31), followed by private practice
i.e. 13.04% (n=30) which is followed by work for a dentist
i.e. 9.13% (n=21) and last choice is work in a dental
college i.e. 6.52% (n=15) (Graph-2). Majority of the
students wanted to take up oral surgery as their specially
followed by Endodontics which is followed by community
dentistry. 62.17% (n=143) wanted to go abroad for further
studies commonly to U.S.A. followed by Australia, UK
and lastly to New Zealand (Graph-3).
When asked whether they would advice their friends
to take up Dentistry 81.74% (n=188) said yes mainly
because of good scope due to new emerging
technologies while 18.26% (n=42) said no, due to factors
like increased stress, low salaries and saturation in this
field in our country.

Special articles Annals and Essences of Dentistry
Vol. - III Issue 2 Apr – jun 2011 110
Discussion
The rationale of our surgery was to find out the
career aspirations of Dental students of Gandhi Dental
College and Hospital, Bhubaneswar. In our study 53.91%
(n=124) students has chosen the profession due to their
own interest. This finding was similar to a study conducted
in Mysore in 20083. Unavailability of other desired courses
11.74% (n=27) and peer pressure 7.39 (n=17) were the
least common reasons.
In our survey 57.39% (n=132) of the under graduate
students wanted to pursue further studies i.e. post
graduation and take up teaching or research.
Administrative services i.e. 13.48% (n=31) was the 2nd
choice and private practice in urban area was the 3rd
choice. Also more number of undergraduate students
62.17% (n=143) wanted to go abroad for work and wished
for some career counseling in this regard. This may be
due to the better financial incentives abroad. 18.26% of
students would not advice their friends to take up dentistry
due to long study period and low financial returns due to
increased competition and more private dentists.
Lack of proper directions in the policies pertaining to
education, service, recruitment and placement of Dental
surgeons is a notable feature in India. Inspite the large
number of Dental graduates coming out each year from
Dental College, the countries rural areas remains short of
the Dentists. Also numbers of applicants to Dentistry
have decreased and dental services are having problems
motivating young talented people to the profession.4
Personal characteristics and motives of the students play
a major role in shaping their career preferences5Career
advice should be tailored for students before the
beginning of the course since they are attracted to
dentistry for slightly different reasons. This can help the
dental universities to plan and tailor recruitment
techniques to select to most suitable applicants, both
professionally and socially, for the ultimate benefit of
communities.
A focused and vocational university programme such
as dentistry may limit the opportunities for graduates who
find that clinical dentistry is not for them. It is important
that those advising and recruiting people into the
profession should ascertain whether applicants have a
realistic idea of what lies ahead6. Aim careers advice
around three years ahead of leaving school, since this is
when pupils are making decisions about their career
options. In additions, a reduction in overall applications to
the undergraduate course has been seen during the last
decade, although fluctuations have occurred from year to
year, so it is essential to keep up momentum in the drive
to attract suitable applicants for the course. This can be
done by increasing the quality instead of quantity of
Dental Education in India, creating more awareness
among the public by conducting health programmes and
placement of dentists in rural areas improving research
and by opening up superspecialisation courses in our
field.
CONCLUSION
Finally it is important to consider the limitations of this
study. The students participating in this study did not
comprise a representative sample but simply a
‘convenience sample’. Although their views represent a
interesting snap shot of dental students attending Gandhi
Dental College. They cannot be taken as representatives
of the views of dental students as a whole.
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Corresponding Author
Dr. Bharath Kumar Garla
Professor
Department of Community Dentistry
Gandhi Dental College
Badaraghunathpur
Bhubaneswar
Ph.No.+919845162272
Email:goodteethinfo@yahoo.com