Asian Journal of Dental Sciences

Dentistry profession has expanded in recent years to cover a large set of prevention and treatment modalities due to increased demand of oral health services as result of change in population Demographics, the increased demand for dentists has led to establishment of many dental colleges with overall number of 32 dental colleges in Sudan, and average number of 1200 graduates in 2019 from 15 dental colleges. A descriptive cross sectional – institutional based study was carried out, Data was collected using secondary data including statistical records of MOH, Ministry of higher education and other related institutions, Also, a questionnaire was administered for convenience sample of dentists and dental students (100 dentists/100 dental students) in order to assess their career plans and possibility to serve inside Sudan, the quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 22 (confidence level of 95%). 45% of the total public sector dentists are in Khartoum and 33% of dentists based on career planning assessment won't work outside Khartoum irrespective to income. The career plan assessment showed that 61.3% of dental students have emigrational plans as well as 91% of dentists, with most of dentists were not satisfied about their employment status. The findings highlight that assigned dentists in both public and private sectors in Sudan are less than WHO recommended dentists population ratio, therefore number of working dentists in public and private sectors are very low in other different states than Khartoum, so it's important to set a rational annual students intake number in dental colleges rather than altering colleges numbers, also authorities should adopt decentralization strategies as well as Inter-sectoral collaboration between Ministry of Health (FMOH) and Ministry of Higher Education to establish strategies for dental student's intake, Furthermore comprehensive review of dental human resources in Sudan to be done in 2025 as there are new 16 dental colleges are going to graduate students for the first time.