About BDS
BDS term is used for Bachelor of Dental Surgery; it is another popular medical course after MBBS in India for medical students. BDS is an undergraduate level course and it enable aspirants to become a future Dentist. The exact time duration of this course is vary from college to college but mostly it takes 4 years for academic session and 1 year for mandatory paid rotating internship.
Dental Council of India is the authorized body controlling the BDS and its all admission procedure and events. Candidates have to register themselves with DCI after completing qualification for practicing in India. Interested candidates desires to take admission in BDS colleges have to qualify National Eligibility cum entrance Test (NEET). NEET is a national level Exam held all over in India, once in a year.
There are only 26,620 seats are available for BDS candidates according to the Dental Council of India over the 131 colleges including Government, Private, Deemed and central Universities.
After the successfully completion of BDS academic qualification with internship, after getting its pass certificate, candidate can practice in India as Dentist and prefix Dr. added to hi/her title.
BDS Course Eligibility Parameters & BDS Admission Process
Candidate has to meet with the required eligibility criteria for admission in BDS colleges as mentioned below;
- To take admission in any BDS college in it is must for every aspirant to qualify the NEET Entrance Examination with valid scores.
- Candidate going to apply for BDS admission had secured at least 50% marks in science stream with the subject, Physic, Chemistry, Biology and English and 40% marks in case of reservation quota.
- The age limit should be 17 year olds and there is no Upper limit for candidates.
- Admission in BDS colleges will be done on the basis of entrance examination and on the performance of 10+2 marks.
- After the declaration of the NEET result, qualified students are called for counseling process by the authorized institutes and seats were allotted to the candidates according to their rank and availability of seats.
BDS course details
BDS is a Five years long professional course in field of Medical education. It consists 240 days for teaching in academic each year in addition with the paid one year rotation internship. The candidate must have to clear their final examination along with internship for getting BDS degree and practice in India. The entire candidate has to complete their theory work that has been provided in 160 lectures hours within the six months.
| Subject | Lectures |
| Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery | 30 hours. |
| Conservative Dentistry &Endodontic | 50 hours. |
| Prosthodontics And Crown& Bridge | 50 hours. |
| Public Health dentistry | 30 hours. |
After clearing the all Examination candidates will be allowed to prevail six months paid rotating internship in the entire department.
| Departments | Days |
| Oral Medicine and Radiology | 20 days. |
| Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery | 20 days. |
| Prosthodontic | 30 days. |
| Periodontics | 15 days. |
| Conservative dentist | 10 days. |
| Pedodontics | 15 days. |
| Oral Pathology& Microbiology | 10 days. |
| Orthodontics | 10 days. |
| Elective | 10 days. |
| Community Dentist | 30 days. |
Any candidate who have not cleared there BDS course from all subject within the 9 years will be disqualified from the Exams by the Council.
BDS course Fees
BDS is a full time course and its fees will be differing from college to college according to their facility and infrastructure. On the other hand, Indian government has high subsidize the fees structure for the BDS Course in India. BDS course fees in private colleges or any deemed university is ranges from 3.5 to 6 lakhs and above.
BDS Colleges
According to the Dental Council of India records there are only 313 registered colleges under DCI all over the India for BDS courses out of which 308 colleges are permitted to take admission in BDS Courses and other five colleges were not allowed to admission of the students of dental branch because of some reason.
Across the 308 colleges there are only 26,620 seats offered and 15% seats are reserved for All India Quota. Approximately, there are about 3000+ seats were covered for the reserved categories.
State wise Pvt BDS colleges in India
BDS Course Career Scope
For all BDS qualified there is a extensively vast scope in the medical recruitment companies, institutes, Science Research center and many other jobs in government and private firms. But for the wonderful and successful career candidate have to register with the DCI for Pass Certificate and to be called as Dentist in India. There are various career choices for the BDS qualified directed below;
The most common and usually option that is followed by average Dr. is they can set up their own clinic.
One can also work as dental consultant in an institution; over there they have to work like an employee and deal with the dental patients and handle them.
Fresher’s can also apply for teaching however it is field where experienced were taken into preference but the candidate with a good skill and sound personality can apply.
Candidate can apply for the government Dentist post or work with Dental Manufacturing Companies.
BDS Master’s Degree- MDS
The Interested candidate may also opt for higher studies MDS Masters of Dental Surgery it is the master’s degree for BDS. There are 9 specialization branches are available in master’s course to choose the specific field and mark their career. The list of nine branches is given below;
- Oral Medicine, Diagnosis, and Radiology.
- Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.
- Oral Pathology and Microbiology.
- Conservative Dentistry and Endodontic.
- Orthodontic.
- Prosthodontic.
- Periodontal Surgery and Oral Implantology.
- Pedodontics.
- Public Health dentistry.
MDS is not only Further career option they can also look for the Management courses like, MPH or MHA to step into the Hospital Management Chain.