Dental course gets sheen back: All seats taken for 2nd year in a row

Demand for the undergraduate dental course – BDS – is on the upswing once again after registering a dip for a brief period.

All seats for the BDS course found takers in 2024 and 2025, reaffirming the programme’s appeal among students. However, 1,398 seats were left unfilled in 2022, while 198 seats found no takers in 2023, according to data sourced from the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA).

Experts attributed the spike in demand to the shortfall in the number of available seats.

“The number of new seats for the BDS course has not been on the higher side, compared to the medical programme. No new dental colleges are being established, which can add to the existing pool of BDS seats,” said Dr H J Jaikrishna, senior dentist and former member of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) syndicate.

Dr Jaikrishna pointed out that dental courses were less expensive than medical degrees.

“Furthermore, thanks to the Make In India initiative, the cost of dental equipment required to set up clinics has come down drastically, which means that students passing out with a BDS degree can set up their practice without having to pursue a postgraduate programme,” he added.

Minister for Medical Education Dr Sharan Prakash Patil expressed his surprise at the fact that all dental seats had been allotted this year.

“This is indicative of the transparent manner in which KEA and the Medical Education Department have completed the seat allotment process,” the minister said.

An official in the Medical Education Department said that delays in the allotment of medical seats, coupled with the many cases pending in courts, had prompted students to opt for the dental course as a viable alternative.

Over 21k nursing seats found no takers

Meanwhile, demand for nursing courses continued its downward spiral this year, with 21,664 of the available 34,050 seats going unfilled.

In 2024, 16,744 of the 31,812 seats went unallotted, while 22,777 seats against a total of 33,490 found no takers in 2023.

Oddly enough, the number of vacant seats was markedly lower in 2022, when the total number of available seats was also less – only 1,384 of the 7,332 available seats went unallotted.

In a first, the number of unallotted seats for the veterinary course has risen to double digits – 24 – this year.

“There are very few seats for the veterinary course, and KEA must examine the reasons as to why these many seats were left unfilled. KEA must take steps to ensure all seats are filled,” said Dr Patil.