CONTROVERSIAL:
People studying dentistry abroad must also take exams and undergo training, and “slander and bullying” should stop, a local group has said.

• By Lee I-chia / Journalist

A group of dentists held a march in Taipei yesterday, urging the government to change laws to reduce the maximum number of trainee dentists with foreign degrees and not allow unlicensed dentistry graduates trained in foreign medicine. foreigner to apply for a rural health care program.

The protest was organized by the Taiwan General Dentists Association (TGDPA) and the Taiwan Dentists’ Alliance (本土小牙醫聯盟), with hundreds of dentists wearing lab coats and other supporters participating.

In a statement, the TGDPA said it demanded the Ministry of Health and Welfare to re-evaluate its 2.4 billion rural health care improvement program. of NT dollars (US$73.64 million), and not allow unlicensed foreign dental graduates to apply.

Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times

The eligibility of foreign dental graduates to participate in the national dental licensure examination should be strictly revised, the document said.

He also demanded that a cap be imposed on the number of dental interns in the country, with the percentage of interns who studied dentistry abroad not exceeding 10 percent of domestic graduates.

To achieve this, the Doctors Act (醫師法) should be amended, he says.

A total of 391 students enroll in Taiwan’s dental departments each year, and although the ideal teacher-to-student ratio for clinical sessions is 1:1 or 1:2, the government sets it at 1:4 , allowing 50 foreign graduates to become interns. , said Wang Tong-mei (王東美), associate professor at the Department of Dentistry at National Taiwan University.

The high number of overseas trainees and the workload they impose on teachers could affect the quality of training, she said.

Unlike domestic trainees, there is no mechanism to test and fail foreign trainees, she added.

The second phase of the ministry’s rural health care improvement program would allow foreign graduates to apply, even if they have not completed an internship or passed a dental license exam, said Huang Ying-chi (黃映綺), president of the Taiwan Alliance of Dentists.

There could be as many as 100 overseas-trained trainees in Taiwan each year, she said.

The program states that it would provide dental services to 55 rural areas that do not have dentists, but in reality they only lack dental clinics, since more than half of them have dental offices and medical services mobile, she explained.

Data over the past 15 years show that since Taiwan began to recognize academic degrees from foreign dental departments, more than 80 percent of foreign-trained trainees have stayed in the country’s six special municipalities, which is lower to the rate of local dental graduates.

In Taiwan, dentists with foreign degrees are commonly referred to as “Popo doctors/dentists” (波波醫生), because most of them studied in Poland after the country joined the EU in 2004 and began degree programs in medical sciences in English.

In recent years, Taiwanese have also pursued medical or dental programs in other European countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.

The International Dental Union Alumni Association said the graduation rate in Taiwan’s dental departments is 100 percent, while it is only 50 to 60 percent in many foreign dental or medical departments.

Foreign dental graduates must also pass similar examinations and training as domestic graduates and must also obtain a dentist’s license in Taiwan, the statement said.

The Taiwan Dentist Alliance should stop “smearing and bullying them,” she said.

Additional reporting by Chen Chia-yi