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India’s dental sector is struggling with dentist oversupply and limited job opportunities, while the feminisation in the field reveals persistent gender bias and unequal career opportunities
India’s dental sector has seen outstanding growth over the past eight decades. In 1947, when India achieved independence, there were only three dental colleges. India currently has 329 Dental Colleges with 27,926 Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) seats available annually. Currently, 82 percent of BDS seats are in private institutions. The National Dental Commission Act, 2023, is a comprehensive legislation enacted to regulate the profession of dentistry across India, modernise dental education, and ensure high standards of oral healthcare services. Its jurisdiction extends to all individuals and entities associated with dentistry: dentists, dental auxiliaries, institutions, colleges, and the general public as indirect beneficiaries. This Act aims to replace the Dental Council of India (DCI), originally set up under the Dentists Act, 1948, with the recently established National Dental Commission (NDC).
India now has one dentist for every 3,846 people, which is almost double the WHO’s recommended ratio of 1:7,500. It indicates that the country has more dentists than it actually needs.
However, the inability to constitute the commission is placing the existing Dental Council of India (DCI) in an increasingly unstable position. Despite legislative backing and notified rules, the National Dental Commission has yet to be constituted, raising serious concerns over dental education and regulations. Currently, India has 376,721 registered dentists under the Dental Council of India(DCI). India’s 2025 population is estimated at 1,463,865,525 people at mid-year, which makes the current dentist-to-population ratio in India approximately 1:3846. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a dentist-to-population ratio of 1:7500 for developing countries. India now has one dentist for every 3,846 people, which is almost double the WHO’s recommended ratio of 1:7,500. It indicates that the country has more dentists than it actually needs. Yet beneath these gains lies an alarming reality characterised by market saturation of dentists, uneven distribution, employment bottlenecks, and complex gender inequalities that continue to pervade the profession.
On one hand, urban areas witness severe competition among dentists who own private clinics, and on the other hand, rural areas remain critically underserved and deprived of oral healthcare. Simultaneously, the feminisation of the profession, where women now represent 75 percent of dental students in many states has exposed structural barriers in practice, specialisation, research, and leadership. This article aims to analyse how saturation and gender bias interact in India’s dental profession, necessitating better policy pathways for equitable workforce planning.
Over the next decade, there will be a massive oversupply of dentists in the country with a surplus of over 100,000 dentists. The rate of increase in the number of dentists in India is more than three times that of the population growth. The oversupply of dentists in India will continue to affect recent dental graduates the most and is causing high unemployment. The supply and demand imbalance, alongside the overpopulation of dental clinics, has made private practice financially risky for new graduates. To open and run a dental clinic, a huge financial investment is needed, and prospects for establishing a financially sustainable practice in urban areas are already saturated in India.
The rate of increase in the number of dentists in India is more than three times that of the population growth.
The aftermath of oversupply of dentists in India is a reduction in the quality of care given to patients, and it is also causing major compromise to the ethics of dental professionals, such as using low-quality dental materials to make the dental practice profitable. It might also cause other healthcare hazards, such as overtreating patients, i.e. recommending an unnecessary procedure to patients for their dental health, or overpromising, i.e. not telling the complete truth to the patient regarding the outcome of the procedure. All these things have also led to an increase in distrust among patients towards dentists in India.
Even with the job stability and financial security offered by academic institutions, the past five years have witnessed a notable decline in the quality of dental education, accompanied by increasing levels of burnout among dental academicians due to occupational stress. Dental faculty members in India have reported high levels of dissatisfaction with their careers in full-time teaching positions. A 2021 National-level study indicates that a greater willingness to resign is positively correlated with feelings of hopelessness, showing the significant stress experienced by faculty within institutional settings. Married academicians, assistant professors, and those earning below INR 50,000/month reported significantly higher levels of hopelessness compared to other groups (P < 0.05). Job satisfaction among academicians plays a critical role in shaping students’ learning experiences; thus, continuous dissatisfaction among faculty members may have profound effects on the overall quality of dental education and the competence of future graduates in India.
Dental faculty members in India have reported high levels of dissatisfaction with their careers in full-time teaching positions.
Despite their high number, female dentists are less likely than men to own a clinic or secure postgraduate qualifications. Moreover, the average annual income of full-time, self-employed women in dentistry was 37 percent lower than that of full-time, self-employed men, which clearly demonstrates the persistence of the gender gap.
The current statistics of men and women registered as dentists or students are not available on the DCI website. However, according to a 2019 global study, it was found that more than 70 percent of the registered dentists in India are women. The authors of a 2019 study reported that they made multiple attempts to gather data on gender distribution, but leaders in dental education in India did not respond. This is the case in India, which has the most dental schools and a central registry for dentists. They hypothesised that the male-dominated leadership in some developing nations, like India, may not be eager to share information that recognises inequality in their nations, and that there is little to no diversity at the top levels of dental education and research.
Source of Graph 1: Gender Inequalities in the Dental Workforce: Global Perspectives
The ratio of male and female dental faculty in Figure 1 very well demonstrates how the ratio is reversed from dental students to academicians.
Figure 1: Ratio of male to female faculty in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
A 2020 study conducted in Vadodara, India, to assess the disparities at the workplace experienced by female dentists was able to identify reasons behind the disparities. The findings of the study in Vadodara revealed that male dentists often displayed hostility toward the idea of women in positions of authority, reflecting a deep-rooted bias against the ‘woman in power’ concept. Additionally, male dentists were generally perceived as being more proficient in technical skills, which further reinforces gender hierarchies within the profession. Many female dentists also faced challenges in balancing their professional responsibilities with family obligations, making it harder for them to progress in their careers. Moreover, workplace discipline and decision-making were often influenced by male authority figures, creating an environment where women remained dependent on male counterparts for professional validation and support.
The findings of the study in Vadodara revealed that male dentists often displayed hostility toward the idea of women in positions of authority, reflecting a deep-rooted bias against the ‘woman in power’ concept.
Until the National Dental Commission becomes fully operational, the country’s dental sector remains in a state of uncertainty; its directions are influenced more by bureaucratic delays than by the forward-looking intent behind the Act’s enactment. The utilisation of oral healthcare services is limited in rural areas in India. Improving service utilisation requires planned investment in human resources and the enhancement of demand through education and outreach in the rural population.
Lessons can be drawn from countries such as Finland, where, by studying the career choices, appropriate policy measures are taken. Furthermore, a small percentage of leadership positions should be reserved for female dentists in India so that their perspective can also be taken into consideration. There is an urgent need to build a more inclusive environment, one that supports rural practice through incentives and awareness, promotes gender equity at every level, and ensures more transparent pathways for leadership and career growth for a better delivery of oral health services in India.
Damini Bisen is a Research Intern at the Observer Research Foundation.
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Damini Bisen is an Intern under the Health Initiative, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi ...
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