Career intentions, choices, and motivation of undergraduate dental students toward dentistry

Abstract

Students studying healthcare related professional courses like dentistry are future role models and leaders of our society. It is imperative that only interested and motivated candidates join dental profession because of amount of time and resources involved. The aims of this survey were to study the intentions, motivation, and selection of dentistry as a profession by the dental students. Data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among 500 undergraduate dental students and interns of two government (n = 250) and one private dental college (n = 250) located in National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi, India. Majority of respondents were females and were residing in urban area. Students of government dental college were significantly more inclined to continue with their profession. Oral and maxillofacial surgery was the most sought after branch of dentistry to pursue post-graduation by the study participants. This study highlighted some important factors for selecting and continuing dentistry as a profession. Majority of students indicated that dentistry was not their first choice of career. There is a need to educate students about their preferred career choices and its future aspects before joining the course.