PETALING JAYA: Although Lincoln UniversityCollege’s dental clinic serves as a training ground for its dental students,the institution also sees it as a way to give back to society by making dentalservices affordable and accessible to the public.
Speaking to FMT, LincolnUniversity College’s Faculty of Dentistry’s Professor Rahimah Abdul Kadir saidthe clinic is run by Year Three, Four and Five students who are supervised bythe university’s lecturers. “At our dental clinic, members of the public canwalk in for screening and diagnosis, between Monday and Friday from 9.30am to3.30pm. “After screening and diagnosis, furthertreatments such as non-invasive preventive measures, scaling, extractions, rootcanals and removal of wisdom teeth can be done by appointment.” Rahimah said the dental clinic only charges aminimal cost as it was not set up with the aim of making profit.
Although the treatments are carried out bystudents, she said there was no reason for anyone to feel afraid as they aresupervised at all times by lecturers who are dental specialists by training. “Of course, the more senior the student is, themore complex treatments they can do. In cases where a dental treatment is toocomplex, then the lecturer will take over and the students will observe. “But the students can do almost anything exceptmajor treatments such as braces and cleft surgeries, as you have to be aspecialist to do that.” Rahimah said the dental clinic in LincolnUniversity College’s Faculty of Dentistry in Petaling Jaya is fully equippedwith state of the art equipment and tools in keeping with the stringentstandards set by the Malaysian Dental Council (MDC). “Dentistry is still very much a good career forthose who are interested in it. With dentistry, there’s no housemanship likedoctors, but graduates do have to serve one year in the public service.” Rahimah said fresh graduates are given athree-year contract by the government and are required to fulfil one year ofcompulsory service. “But the one-year service is different from ahousemanship, because the dentists will not be supervised once they enter thegovernment service. This means they will get a lot of exposure and experiencein that one year. “So if you ask me, I feel it’s good if dentalgraduates serve out the three-year contract because of the exposure.
“Also in dentistry, if you want to specialise,then you have to have at least two years of continuous post-graduation workexperience.” After the three years, she said the dentists canopt for specialisation, continue in the public service or move to the privatesector. Established in 2002, Lincoln University Collegeoffers over 80 certificate, foundation, diploma, degree, master and doctoratecourses covering 10 disciplines including medicine, engineering, business andaccounting, hospitality management, computing and networking, dentistry,pharmacy, nursing and social sciences and humanities.