New course targets more dentists in NSW

Charles Sturt University (CSU) has announced that it will offer a Bachelor of Clinical Science at its campus in Orange NSW, intended to provide 10 medical and 10 dental placements for rural and regional CSU graduates who meet entry requirements to to study graduate entry medicine or dentistry at Sydney University.

This initiative is part of a Rural Pathway Program due to commence in 2007.

Their media release noted that "for the last two years, CSU has been increasingly concerned about the chronic shortage of qualified dentists and dental workers, particularly in regional NSW."

“The number of dentists in regional NSW does not meet the recommendation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),” says Mark Burton, CSU’s Dean of the Faculty of Health Studies. “The situation in the Central West of NSW is approaching the levels in some developing countries…just 17.3 dentists per 100 000. The OECD average is 56 dentists per 100 000 people.”