The Manipal College of Dental Sciences (MCODS), Manipal, formerly known as the College of Dental Surgery, is the first self-financing dental college in the private sector of India. Established in the year 1965, it initially had an intake of 40 students and later increased to 100 from 1983 - 84 onwards.
The inception of MCODS, Manipal was a significant milestone in the history of our University. From the humble beginnings in a thatched roof structure with limited facilities, it has grown to be the top rated college in the country, according to a survey by the magazine “Outlook” in June, 2009.
Dr. Sunder J. Vazirani nurtured the college during its teething stages. It was small, had just one dental chair, forty students and a faculty of clinicians, many of them retired.
Over the years, it has grown steadily and appreciably under the guidance of accomplished professionals beginning with Dr. K. L. Shourie, Dr. Kamalamma G. Pillai, Dr. S. S. Khera and Dr. K. S. Bhat. Presently Dr. Shobha Tandon is at the helm.
The college has metamorphosed through time and stands tall, both nationally and internationally. Moving from the original school building to the Biochemistry block and then on to what now serves as the outpatient department of the Kasturba Hospital, we are currently situated in two buildings, the clinical wing housed adjacent to the Kasturba Hospital and the pre-clinical wing at the Centre for Basic Sciences.
Besides this, MCODS, Manipal, has several peripheral clinics that include centres at Dr. T.M.A. Pai Hospital, Udupi; Rotary Hospital, Karkala; Hebri; Moodubelle; Saligrama; Kundapura; Brahmavar; Sharadas Residential School, Udupi; Parkala High School, Parkala; Vidya Niketan Public School, Kaup and many more.
Academically, the College of Dental Surgery, Manipal was affiliated to the Mysore University (1965-1980) and then to the Mangalore University (1980-1993) before becoming a part of the Manipal University. Today, we have more than 250 dental chairs and state-of-the-art laboratories with an intake of 100 undergraduate students and 25 postgraduate students per year.
In addition to the Bachelor’s and Post Graduate courses in dental surgery, MCODS, Manipal also conducts advanced certificate courses in Oral Implantology and Aesthetic dentistry. A post graduate course in Dental Materials, the first of its kind in the country, is also a part of the institution’s academic progress. A course in Dental Hygiene and a Dental Mechanics course, which is meant for technicians, is offered as well. Academic initiatives in the field of Forensic Dentistry and Lasers in Dentistry are in the pipeline.
The Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal has been ranked the Number One Dental College in the country in a survey recently conducted by the Outlook Magazine (Issue June 22, 2009).
To rank the best professional college, a perceptual study was conducted among different stakeholders. To make the exercise representative and robust, 300 professionals were interviewed from six metro cities. For medicine and dentistry, practicing doctors and dentists from leading institutes and hospitals in each city were interviewed. The study was carried out in two stages. Institutes were rated on four broad parameters: selection process; academic excellence; infrastructure & facilities; research & employability. Respondents were asked to rank the top 10 institutes across India in their disciplines and then rank the top five institutes in each zone.