SAUDI dentists continue to suffer and the problems they face need to be resolved. I listened to a radio program the other day focusing on this issue. A female Saudi dentist was complaining that she could not find a job, though she had been searching for one since she graduated three years ago. She said she has almost forgotten everything she has learned because of a lack of practice. She is right; the field she is in requires practice. Shortly after finishing her studies, she visited many private dental clinics searching for a job but was unable to find one. The dental clinics told her she could work as a sales rep on a commission basis. This was something she could not do. At some point, she thought about starting her own dental clinic but discovered that setting up a clinic and buying medical equipment costs a lot of money, which she did not have. I was shocked when I heard this interview. There are thousands and thousands of dental clinics all over the Kingdom and the majority of them are managed and run by expatriates. Waiting for an appointment with a dentist usually takes a week. Most expatriate dentists have bachelor's degrees in dentistry but get paid tens of thousands in salaries while the owners earn millions of riyals. Most owners refuse to hire Saudis and when they do hire Saudis, they only do it because they do not want the authorities to give them a hard time. As far as I know, most dental clinics have fancy décor, pay high salaries and rely heavily on expatriate doctors, some of whom are not competent and make medical errors. We have a large number of young Saudi men and women who have graduated from dental colleges and continue to be unemployed. Some of them graduated a long time ago and may lose their skills if they do not practice soon. Moreover, some of them feel frustrated and depressed because they have not found jobs. I hope Minister of Health Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah does something about this and finds a solution. He is, after all, known to be a loyal and honest person who cares a lot about the future of our country's young men and women.
