Dental council elections

After the CPA has been made applicable to doctors there has been a lot of debate on the effectiveness of the functioning of medical and dental councils. In this regard, it would be interesting to know how the dental council has being functioning.

The 6,601 qualified dental surgeons (BDS) registered with the Maharashtra State Dental Council have an opportunity to elect a representative on the Dental Council of India. Elections are meant to be held every five years under Section 3A of the Dentist Act, 1948.

The elections, recently held after a gap of 21 years (the incumbent has been there for the last 26 years), were announced only in the Maharashtra government gazette notification. While this may be technically correct, it does not allow for true participation by members. For example, even the vice-president of MSDC, Dr SG Damle, Dean, Nair dental college, was not aware of such a notification!

A dental surgeon from Sangli filed his nomination and was elected. The executive committee of the Indian Dental Association, Mumbai branch, were surprised at the manner in which the elections were conducted, and are trying to find out whether a representative can still be elected who truly represents dental surgeons in Maharashtra.