A lot of dental graduates who don't wish to pursue Masters further, often think about pursuing a few diploma courses to enhance their hand skills which can benefit them in their clinical practice.
Before finalizing on which diploma course you want to pursue, here are a few things to keep in mind:
The diploma courses may be either conducted for one day under CDE programs or over a more extended time, giving a better insight into the program.
The one-day diploma courses are known as a certificate course, which is relatively cheaper with minimum or no hands-on experience. While a course that takes place over a longer period, which may be six months to 1 year, is known as a diploma course or a fellowship course and will be expensive with extensive knowledge and a lot of hands-on experience and working on patients too.
The next thing to see is if the course is a private approved diploma course or a government-approved diploma course.
Choosing the diploma course based on the topic that will benefit you in terms of clinical practice and not academically only. Because once you start practicing, your hand's skills will matter more than the academic assets of the diploma.
To always check the demand for the diploma course topic for your geographic location. There are certain diploma courses which may not be feasible for your practice as you won't find such cases during your clinical practice.
To always check who would be mentoring you for the diploma course as experienced dentists mentoring will give you more clinical exposure and tips.
Now we will be discussing on whether to go for privately approved diploma courses our government approved diploma courses.
Private diploma courses will be expensive when compared to government-approved courses.
Government-authorized diplomas have approval by the Dental Council of India (DCI). Private diplomas do not have authorization from DCI and are usually organized by dentists individually or under any organization.
Government-approved diplomas have more weightage if you are looking for academic jobs after pursuing the diploma course.
However, there is no restriction on adding the number of diplomas to your profile, whether it may be a private diploma course or a government diploma course.
As per the current scenario in Dentistry, here are some of the diploma courses that will be beneficial for your clinical practice:
1. Conservative Dentistry, Root Canal Advancement and Rotary Endodontics: http://www.dypatil.edu/schools/dentistry/fellowship-program-in-contemporary-endodontics/ https://www.muhs.ac.in/showpdf.aspx?src1=https://intranet.muhs.ac.in/syllabus.aspx https://www.muhs.ac.in/upload/syllabus/FC%20in%20Endodontics%20220318.pdf
2. Dental Implants:
3. Laser Dentistry:
4. Aesthetic Dentistry:
5. Facial Aesthetics in Smile Approving:
6. Periodontal Management with Flap surgeries, Gingival surgeries:
7. Micro-dentistry:
Always remember that with these courses, you have to gain maximum clinical knowledge and practice, so choosing the course wisely would be the decision.