Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa Edition

Interview: Dr. Rani, Dean of College of Dentistry, University of Sharjah in UAe puters to healthcare systems and health- care technology, has not been very success- ful because it has been introduced to senior dentists and doctors who were born be- fore the era of computers, so they do not know how to operate computers! But then, if we look at our students today, research has shown that all children who are born after 1980 are very computer literate, and there are many publications about that. So we have taken this into consideration, and we have found that when children are ed- ucated in an environment where it is not digital, they don’t find the lesson inter- esting. So when students learn in a class- room using manual, or the chalk and black- board, method of teaching they find the les- son very boring, because their life is digital, AND they can cope with it. Therefore we consider all these factors, and because we know that the computer industry will take the dental industry to a different level, and it has happened now and will in the near future, we have add- ed the CAD/CAM technologies in oper- ative dentistry, we have also introduced our students to methods of assessing and planning dental implants using software, to analyze where is the best site to place dental insights in the patients jaw, and all this planning is done using software. So coming back to CAD/CAM, we have started delivering lectures to students in CAD/CAM technology, we are the biggest investor in CAD/CAM technology educa- tion in this region, where for your infor- mation, we have four CAD/CAM systems in our clinics and labs, and all the systems are the Sirona Systems, and our dental technicians are also trained in using these technologies. We also have a dental technology program- a diploma of dental technology where we train future dental technicians, who are very heavily involved in using CAD/CAM technology in their studies. Because we are very sure that when they graduate and they go into private dental labs, I am sure that all labs will need their knowledge and skills to operate the CAD/CAM and no more the manual way of constructing dentures and gums, therefore, we are in the second year of our program where CAD/CAM technol- ogy has been introduced to undergraduate students. ed my training as a registrar in oral and max- illofacial surgery. But FINALLY after a good number of years, we decided to return home to Malaysia because, certainly, of opportu- nities; I was appointed as a dean at the den- tal school in Malaysia, University Sains Ma- laysia. I was given the role to build a school, build the infrastructure, develop the human resource, develop a curriculum and it was very successfully. And based on that experi- ence I was invited to come to Sharjah, Unit- ed Arab Emirates to repeat what I had done, with lesser mistakes! What can you say about what you’ve learned about the dental scene here in the region? What changes you’ve seen, and how you expect it to change from here? Well, I’m in the Middle East, but certain- ly while I am in the Middle East, I’m in the UAE. This is a coun- try that’s opened its doors to profes- sionals coming into Dubai, and competes amongst themselves for the betterment of mankind. Therefore in our profession, in dentistry, I found that there’s a good number of dentists that are excellent, who are very competitive, that produce very good work. I’ve met dentists coming from many parts of the world, and I learned about different systems of dentist- ry and dental training background when I talked to them. So this is a place where den- tists form different cultures and different training backgrounds come to meet. And I must say that the standards are very high, so much so again because this country has a very organized health system, regulated by the Ministry of Health, and they have an excellent licensing system, and regulations are in place to regulate these dental practi- tioners who come from so many countries. So I must say that the dental market here is big, and of very high quality. And there- fore when I met colleagues who are prac- ticing in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and even in Sharjah who have patients who are coming in from outside the country, I must say that these patients are actually health tourists coming to get dental treatment in this coun- try. It’s not a surprise because this country has the platform to offer these services; so I must say that we are in a very, very exclu- sive dental environment amongst excellent dental colleagues. So how would you say this rising inter- est in dental education here in the region is affecting the scene? Would you say that a lot of the students are interested in giv- ing back to this community? Or are more willing to impart their learned knowl- edge around the world? How would you say the education scene has influenced the professional scene? That’s a very important point. To see how the dental education system or, in fact, how does the curriculum move the stu- dents to choose their interests. At our pro- gram in the University of Sharjah we de- velop the content of the program, we deliv- er the knowledge and we take the students through a special experience, such that at the point of graduation they are prepared to become general practitioners who can provide a basic dental care in general prac- tice with a special emphasis in community service. So we develop in our students, the passion to care for the community. As we all know in many big cities around the world, dentistry is a highly profitable business, if you want to look at it form a business point of view, and as it’s a very profitable business, the cost of treatment is very high, it may not be for all levels of the community there: It would be for the mid- dle class and higher class, and it may not be advantageous if we deliver such philos- ophy to our students here, because our stu- dents come from 64 countries around the world. As we know, Dubai, Sharjah and the whole UAE have a very large expatri- ate population, and our students are chil- dren of these expatriates, and we need to prepare them so that they are able to deliv- er their knowledge and skills to their own community. And they come from coun- tries that have very high GDP, high income countries, and from countries that are still developing. So our curriculum meets the needs of these students, so I must say that we train highly qualified and highly com- petent general practitioners to deliver their services for the various levels of socio-eco- nomic status. As in any medical related field, the indus- try of dentistry is always changing. Espe- cially considering a trend that the world is seeing now with an emphasis on the in- tegration of CAD/CAM dentistry being pushed farther than it has before in the way that a lot of professionals and clin- ics are constantly changing the way they completely perform. How has this affected the curriculum, or the way you teach your students? What are you doing to keep up with these changes? Well certainly the computer has changed our daily lives: its changed the way we work at our office and the way we live at home, in fact he way we travel to coun- tries; It’s because of computers that we can fly high, we can fly faster and we can be anywhere in the world within a few hours. So computers have affected dentistry very much. But I must say that computer related technology in the medical and dental field is not new. It has been around for the past thirty or forty years. But I must say that in the early years in the introduction of com- By Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa S HARjAH, UAE: The Middle East today holds a place as one of the foremost business and economic hubs in the entire world. Howev- er, the recent popularity in medical tour- ism into the region has shown that there is more interest in the region than big busi- ness. Highly accredited Dr. Rani Samsu- din is a prime example of the current state of the dentistry scene in the Middle East. Currently Dean of the University of Shar- jah’s College of Dentistry, the renowned Doctor shares with us, his invaluable in- sight into the dentistry scene in the mid- dle east. Tzvetan Deyanov: Doctor, tell us a little bit about where you’re from, what you’re re- sponsibilities here are. Thank you very much. Well I come from Malaysia, and I was holding a deans posi- tion at the dental school in the Univertisi Sains Malaysia, before I was invited to this academic dental program at the College of Dentistry at the University of Sharjah. So I joined to college here in the year 2006, and my main role is to build the academic pro- gram as well as develop the infrastructure and human resource, at the college of den- tistry, to assure that we have a very condu- cive learning environment to study dentist- ry, for students to come and study at Uni- versity of Sharjah You said you were form Malaysia, as I un- derstand you had your formal education there at the Royal Military College. You soon after travelled the world, continu- ing your studies in such places as Iraq and Scotland, could you tell us a little bit about what influenced your decisions and how your experience was? Yes. I opted to seek higher training in dentist- ry and in my dental specialty that is oral and maxillofacial surgery, in the United King- dom. So following my graduation from the University of Baghdad, in Iraq, in 1983 I did some training, I was in the armed forces and I went around the world. Then I decided to go for higher studies, so we landed in the UK in 1989 and from then on I was lucky enough to be attached to several teaching hospitals in Scotland and England. I did my surgical fel- lowship at the Royal College of Surgeons in Glasgow, as well as England and I complet- ”We are in a very, very exclusive dental environment amongst excellent dental colleagues.“ ”We also have a dental technology program- a diploma of dental technology where we train future dental technicians, who are very heavily involved in using CAD/CAM technology in their studies.“ ”Here at the University of Sharjah, Dental College, we deliver the knowledge and we take the students through a special experience“ 10 dENtal acadEMIa trIbuNE Dental tribune Middle East & Africa Edition | November 2012