What changes with the National Dental Commission? Shrinking state role, NExT exam, BDS fee regulation

Last week, the central government notified the National Dental Commission (NDC) Act, 2023, more than two years after the law was passed by parliament. The law, drawn on the lines of the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, 2019, will replace the decades-old Dental Council of India (DCI) with NDC as the apex regulatory body for the dental profession and education.

While the new law will overhaul the governance of dental practice and training at the national level, it will bring in some key changes at the state level as well. While the NDC Act, much like the new medical law, retains the state dental councils (SDC) as the top provincial authority for dentistry, it prescribes that the heads of the state councils will no longer be elected, and will rather be appointed by the state governments. The number of elected members at the councils has also been brought down from nine to merely four, making them a minority.

This new process partly mirrors the change at the centre, where, in place of the current DCI system of elections, all NDC members as well as the chairperson will now be appointed by the union government. However, this is a marked deviation from the NMC Act, which doesn’t define either the composition or the selection method for the state bodies, deferring instead to the state-specific laws that created the respective state medical councils.

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As a result, while the state medical councils will continue to have a significant number of elected members, including their heads, dental councils can now be packed with state government appointees and will also be led by one.

The centre was able to bring this change, because, unlike the medical councils, which follow the state laws, most of the dental councils have been formed through The Dentists Act, 1948, the central law which has now been replaced by the NDC Act.

Changes for Students: NExT exam, BDS fees control

Much like their medical counterparts, the dental graduates will have to clear a National Exit Test or NeXT to be able to practice, with the law giving the government three years’ time to introduce the exam. Those possessing foreign dental qualifications will also have to take the test. Unlike earlier, foreign citizens will also be able to register themselves, albeit temporarily.

In another significant addition, the commission will also have the power to regulate the fees at half the seats in private dental colleges and deemed universities.

The National Medical Commission attempted this but implementation of the policy has been stalled by court cases.

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NDC Act changes state dental councils

The composition of the state medical councils has been a contentious subject. Doctors in Telangana, for instance, have been protesting against a recent state government order, which reduced the proportion of elected members, effectively giving a controlling majority to the government nominees.

The Dentists Act provided for nine elected members, four each from the list of dentists with recognised qualifications, and those without them, and one from the state medical council and three nominees of the state government. Heads of the dental colleges and the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) were ex officio members. Both the president and the vice-president were to be elected by these members amongst themselves.

Under the new law, there will only be four elected members, while the number of government nominees has been increased to six, besides an ex-officio (by virtue of their posts) representative of the government and the chairperson, who will also be a government appointee.

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National Dental Commission: Low state representation

As in the NMC Act, the new dental law has shrunk the state representation in the central body with the number of SDCs representatives fixed at nine, while only ten heads of dental colleges – state and central institutes taken together – will be part of DCM. All of these will be “part-time” members, unlike the ex-officio appointees designated as “full time” members.

The Dentists Act, in contrast, had provided for representation from each of the states as well as the university running the dental course. There was no distinction between the members.

However, the NDC Act goes further than the NMC Act in downgrading the state councils’ and their elected members’ role. Unlike the National Medical Commission, the state dental councils won’t have a guaranteed presence in NDC’s three autonomous bodies – the Under-Graduate and Post-Graduate Dental Education Board, the Dental Assessment and Rating Board and Ethics and Dental Registration Board.

While the NMC Act provides for one of the four members, a part-time one, of each of the medical Autonomous Boards to be drawn from the elected members of the state medical councils, there’s no such provision in the new dental law. Instead, it suggests that the fourth member be chosen from among the pool of part-time members in the parent body – DCI – which includes both the state as well as the central nominees.

The National Dental Commission Act, as in NMC Act, does include a Dental Advisory Council, which will have representatives from all the states. However, this body will have a limited advisory role, allowing the state and union territories to put forth their views and concerns before the commission.

Among other changes, the centre has done away with the executive committees in both the central as well as the state bodies. While the three autonomous boards will replace this committee at the centre, no such bodies will exist within state councils.