Over half of private dentists unqualified to implant teeth

Over 60 percent of dentists in private clinics around the country are not specialized to implant teeth, since they have not been accredited with full license from the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCHS), an official at the agency confirmed.
In order to thwart any possible damage to patients, the commission is now preventing this practice at unlicensed clinics.
Dr. Arwa Ali Al-Sayyed, head of the teeth implant department at the SCHS and director of the fellowship program for teeth implants, confirmed the presence of a large number of expatriates who work in private hospitals and are not specialized, since their training has been very limited.
Almost all of those who applied to get licenses from the commission failed the test (90 percent), the dentist said, adding that preventing government doctors from working in the private sector has led to the rise of unqualified implant dentists.
Specialized implant dentists are much less than the need of the market.
According to Al-Sayyed, the programs offered by the SCHS, such as Saudi fellowship and board programs, may help move forward implant dentistry in KSA.
Indeed, the Kingdom is now in need of 100 doctors to fill these gaps in the market, specialists claim, arguing that a lack of qualified implant dentists can lead to inflated prices and malpractice.
Al-Sayyed noted that medical conferences have great value in contributing to specialty and general medicine, but they don’t include all specialties.