UADS Career Webinar Day 1: Charting the Pathway

Dentistry in Nigeria is considered a very narrow field. This is a popular opinion among many, but it is mostly due to ignorance of the various career paths available in dentistry. On the 25th of January at 10:00 am, a career webinar titled "Charting the Pathway" was launched to help dental students gain better insight into their professional journey post-school. 

The webinar, facilitated by executives from the Unibadan Association Of Dental Students - President Omotoso Kehinde, Vice President Okelue Patrick, and Public Relations Officer Aremu Abass- is a two-day affair that kicked off today with the first session, featuring two speakers. 

The first speaker was Dr. Afeez Salami, a clinician, public health researcher, and senior registrar in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the University College Hospital. He also currently serves as a Senior Collaborator at the Global Burden of Diseases, Institute for Health Metrics, University of Washington, and is an assistant professor at two universities abroad. 

The second speaker was Dr. Victoria Odudayo Matuluko, an experienced dentist, a master's degree holder in Public Health from the University of Northampton, and a registered dental therapist with the General Dental Council, United Kingdom, since 2022.

The webinar started promptly at 10:00 am., followed by a brief wait of ten minutes to allow other participants to join. The Vice President, Okelue Patrick, opened the webinar with a brief speech on the purpose of the meeting. He stated that the goal was to educate students from the various associations of dental students present on career paths in Dentistry. Among the attendees were a student of CUDENSA and Vice President of Administration for the Nigerian Association of Dental Students, Mr Michael Ikeagwuani, as well as the outgoing President of the University of Lagos Association of Dental Students, Miss Oluwasayomi Omoogun. Mr Okelue noted that the pathway for dental students seeking opportunities abroad could be challenging to understand and navigate. He explained that most foreign licensing examinations for dental students cannot be taken at the undergraduate level, unlike exams such as USMLE. These challenges, he empathized, were among the reasons for organizing a webinar like this.

Dr. Salami began by stating that everything he would be discussing in the presentation was purely his opinion. He then proceeded to define the concept of career and the intricacies of dental residency in Nigeria. He spoke about why people spend a minimum of four and a maximum of eight years, or even more, completing a residency program. He also spoke about key factors to consider when choosing a specialty, mentioning that skill, time, and post-residency aspirations should play a major role in the decision-making process. Dr Salami went on to discuss the modalities of residency programs and the associated examinations. Of course, an interesting brief followed on the problems facing residency programs in Nigeria. He stated that the problems were significant, including an excessive focus on the service aspect of the "Service, Training, Research" triad of residency. The consequence of this is that the residents suffer due to inadequate attention to the training and research components.

The second speaker, Dr. Odudayo Matuluko, a 2010 graduate of the University of Lagos and a dentist in the UK, took the stage after Dr. Salami. She began by stating that practicing dentistry abroad is quite easy, it's simply a matter of having the right information. She emphasized the importance of having some work experience (a minimum of 1600 hours) before leaving the country to seek employment elsewhere. Drawing primarily from her experience as a dentist in the United Kingdom, she spoke on the various pathways available to work as a dentist in the UK. 

The pathways she discussed included temporary registration and licensing examinations. Temporary registration provides a form of provisional registration for one to two years. Also, dentists can take the Overseas Registration Examination (O. R. E) or License in Dental Surgery (L. D. S) exams. She noted that the O. R. E is the most popular route because it can be taken twice, in two parts - Part 1 and Part 2 - with more available slots, leading to less competition. Dr Matuluko spoke on the modalities of the different exams, the registration process, associated fees, and other intricacies involved in preparing for and taking the examinations. 

A question was asked during this session about whether dental residency in the UK involves a general pool where both foreigners and UK university graduates compete together or if foreign-trained, UK-certified doctors compete for residency separately. The answer is that both foreign-certified and home-trained doctors compete for residency together; hence, it is more competitive. This might be one of the reasons many simply choose to certify as general dentistry practitioners rather than going back once again for a residency program. 

The webinar ended with a question-and-answer session at about 12: 26pm. It was truly a germane and helpful session of learning. The second part of the webinar is scheduled to be held tomorrow at 6:00pm via Zoom. 

Salami Wisdom