Professor Thomas Flemmig, dean of the University of Hong Kong’s faculty of dentistry for the past 10 years until Sunday, also revealed in an exclusive interview with the Post before retiring that the Covid-19 pandemic had made students’ clinical training more difficult than before. Officials said the proposed change was to address concerns raised by the Dental Council of Hong Kong, which flagged “structural problems” with clinical training in HKU’s bachelor of dental surgery programme, according to accreditation reports issued in 2014, 2019 and 2023. “It’s just very sad to see that the negative publicity is tarnishing the reputation of an institution that has clearly become world renowned,” Flemmig said on Friday.
The council accused some students of having “severely inadequate” clinical experience and “zero experience” in certain dental procedures. Flemmig said the council in 2019 imposed quantitative requirements on dental graduates before they were qualified to practise in the city. Those requirements included treating at least 50 patients of five different types, ranging from the simplest ones to those requiring surgery.
He said students were also required to perform minimum quantities for 20 types of dental procedures, such as doing silver fillings for tooth cavities. But he questioned the requirements set by the council, saying they were not backed by evidence and not adopted by most advanced dental education systems. Some of the required procedu.