Postgraduate Dental Education in Ghana: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

The origins of formal postgraduate dental education in Ghana may be traced to 1986, when three dental surgeons, who had passed a Ministry of Health qualifying examination, were enrolled in the department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. This was to enable them prepare for both the primary examinations of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the West African College of Surgeons. Twenty-six years later, the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, which is only ten years old, has produced sixteen Members and recently, two Fellows. The West African College of Surgeons (WACS), on the other hand, is yet to produce its first batch of Ghanaian Fellows by examination following training in Ghana, although it has been holding examinations since 1988. With the establishment of two dental schools in Ghana, and the resultant improvement in retention of dental graduates in the country, the need and demand for postgraduate dental education has become pressing. No known review of postgraduate
dental education has been carried out in Ghana. This paper seeks to give a historical overview of postgraduate dental education in Ghana and to describe its current status.