In the past 5 years, there has been a considerable percentage of unoccupied seats in Indian dentistry programs, particularly in private dental institutions in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Punjab. 

According to data from the Dental Council of India, despite the Central Government's efforts to improve healthcare by creating additional dental colleges, a significant proportion of BDS and MDS seats remain empty.         

Seats for BDS and MDS degrees increased from 14% to 48%, between 2014 and 2023, with estimated 27868 and 6814 BDS and MDS seats respectively in 2021-22.

Experts claim that students are avoiding dentistry schools due to inadequate equipment, facilities, and patient inflow as reasons.  

Other major hindrances are the scarcity of government jobs and relatively low income in the private sector (1-2 lakh/annum).  

Among the top five dental colleges ranked by the National Institutional Ranking Framework, only one is government-run i.e. MAMC, Delhi, the rest are privately owned, charging over 3 lakhs annually for the five-year BDS program.