Perception towards serving rural population amongst interns from dental colleges of haryana

The problem of reluctance of dentists to work in rural areas is an international phenomenon. With an increase in number of dental colleges in India, there also has been an improvement in the dentist to population ratio. But still there exists a wide disparity in dentist to population ratio in rural and urban areas. The aim of this study was to find the perception of dental interns towards serving rural population and the reasons associated with their choices.

To know the willingness of dental interns to serve rural population and factors associated with their decision, 504 participants from six dental colleges of Haryana were interviewed. A pre-tested self-administered structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics were used for data summarization and presentation. Degree of association was measured by Chi Square test, with significance level set at p < 0.05.

Out of total participants, 55.95% were willing to serve in rural area. Less competition in settling (46.45 %) was the prime factor for willingness, priority for postgraduation (45.01%) was main factor for reluctance. No significant difference (p=0.365) was seen in the perception of young dentists towards serving rural or urban population.

Even though the current statistics don't reflect a satisfactory dentist to population ratio in rural areas, the attitudes of the dental students towards practicing in rural areas were found to be good.