Introduction: Despite progressive statistics, the oral healthcare system suffers from an unevenly distributed workforce, lack of infrastructure, and reduced quality of dental education. As a result, dental graduates have decreased job satisfaction and limited career prospects. This article assesses the perceptions of dental graduates regarding their workforce skills, abilities, and employment preferences. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study targeting House-Officers from various randomly selected dental teaching institutes of Lahore. The study tool was a modified version of the questionnaire used by Manakil and George [13] and assessed the perceptions of dental graduates regarding their workforce skills and preferences. This study aimed to evaluate self-perceived confidence of new dental graduates, and investigate the relationship between gender perceptions.   Results: The sample size was of 256 House- Officers. Most participants were confident in their skills and abilities with 167 (65.4%) individuals confident in workforce integration, 166 (64.8%) confident in their patient management skills, 154(60.2%) confident in their interpersonal skills and 163 (63.7%) confident in their leadership abilities. Mentorship was considered to be crucial by 207 (80.9%) individuals. Two hundred and thirty-three (91%) individuals were willing for an additional year of internship and 174 (68%) participants chose a city-based employment. The government sector was the most preferred for employment by 122 (47.7%) individuals whereas research was least preferred. Conclusion:  It is imperative that career development and mentorship programs are put into practice, incentives are provided to work in rural areas and research culture is promoted.

Dental morphology (DM) is the first introduction of dental graduates towards the identification of tooth; hence it is an important component of the dental curriculum. Traditionally, it is taught by manual carving of wax blocks, but the limitations of this method have been highlighted. There is a need to adopt innovative teaching methodologies to invigorate the concepts of dental anatomy (DA) and reduce the stress in teaching and learning with a proposal in standardization of training methodologies worldwide. Methods: A three-phased project was designed with an aim to collect global data related to teaching dental morphology within the dental curriculum. One dental professional actively involved in university teaching of DM subject was invited from 11 countries. The present study involved compilation of data from phase 1 questionnaire responses, followed by its discussion and analysis, and generation of preliminary report. Results: It is universally acknowledged that acquiring dental morphology knowledge by dentists is a prerequisite before they commence clinical practice. Our data points that no uniformity in DA course modules exists throughout the world and globally the subject requires curriculum redesigning. Conclusions: Consensus should be achieved amongst academicians in DM teaching and learning context. Innovative and standardized DM modules with component of computer-based and remote learning techniques should also be introduced.

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