The health department has created 617 posts of dentists for primary health centres, sadar, sub-divisional, referral and medical college hospitals.

“The state government is determined to provide good healthcare facilities to people of the state. Creating new dentist posts for state-run healthcare institutions is a part of this initiative,” health department principal secretary Deepak Kumar said. He said that of 617 new posts created, 488 were of dentists, 73 of junior staff surgeons (dental), 55 of surgeon (dental) and one of joint director, dental services.

Kumar admitted there was a dental crisis in the state. “There are just 50 dentist posts in state-run healthcare institutions. We can’t think of providing better dental services this way. So, we decided to create new posts of dentists. The decision is also based on the Indian Public Health Standards norms, according to which there should be at least one dentist in each institution.”

He said: “We are also going to upgrade infrastructure related to dental care in the basic primary healthcare institutions. We have decided to start dental outpatient departments in all primary health centres this November.”

Very soon, he said, root canal treatment and other dental surgeries would be started at primary health centres and sadar hospitals. This apart, there has been some progress in the plan to set up a new dental college that chief minister announced last year. Kumar said: “We have acquired 60 acres for the new college at Rahui in Nalanda district. We are soon going to make a detailed project report for the new college to be built at around Rs 400 crore. Soon, we will also start working on upgrading facilities at the lone government-run dental college, the Patna Dental College.”

Dr Amlesh Kumar, a noted dentist and a central council member of Indian Dental Association, hailed the initiative. “The post of dentist for the state-run health institution was last created in 1981. After that no new post has been created. At present there are only 18 dental surgeons in state-run healthcare institutions. Others work on contract basis.”

Kumar also said: “The department should also focus on regularising services of doctors working on contract. Dentists working on contract basis in primary healthcare institutions are at the mercy of civil surgeons. They can be removed any time during their 11-month tenure.”