No Certification Required For Private Dental Surgery Assistants

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 (Bernama) -- There is no regulation in most countries compelling dental surgery assistants at private clinics to have certificates or be certified, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad.
He said this was because their scope of work was restricted to receiving patients, getting the equipment ready and sterilising the utensils.
"They are normally trained on the job by dentists. They are not nurses but categorised as dental surgery assistants," he said when responding to a question from Datuk Razali Ismail (BN-Kuala Terengganu) who wanted to know the number of uncertified nurses especially private dental nurses at Dewan Rakyat here Tuesday.
Dr Abdul Latiff said there was no dental nurse working in the private sector except for in the public sector.
"They are diploma holders trained by the Health Ministry in Penang and undergo periodical training to upgrade their professionalism and we feel churning out 120 dental nurses a year is adequate," he said.
It is compulsory for dental nurses to register with the Malaysian Nursing Board, he said, adding that the ministry was facing a shortage of nurses.
"So far, we train about 3,000 nurses a year, but it is still not enough for we still need about 5,000 nurses to fulfil the quota 1:200 between nurses and patients. The efforts will be intensified by increasing the number of affiliated health science colleges," he said.