Sapporo Dental college & Hospital

	BACHELOR OF DENTAL SURGERY


	History

	The History of Sapporo Dental College and Hospital
	Bangladesh is a developing country in South-Asia with a population of about 150 million and an alarmingly inadequate number of dentists. Its dentist- patient ratio being of the lowest in the world. The scarcity of fund and skilled manpower in Bangladesh are notable To hinder the development of health sector. It is proven over the years that it is almost impossible for the Government alone to implement a well structured health policy for its huge population. In this context, it become imperative for the Government to consider alternative approaches to cope up with this basic human need. Considering the magnitude of the Problem, the Government has been encouraging privet sector to share the burden and help improvement of the health care service in the country. Responding to the Government Policy many Non government Medical College and Hospital were Established in the past decades and the setting up of a good number is also underway. However, The expansion in the area of dentistry is still far below the desired level.

	The establishment of Sapporo Dental College for uplifting the quality of dental education and service in true sense was the brain- child of Prof. Dr. Mohiuddin Ahmed. The need of a privet dental college was initially felt while Dr. Ahmed and Dr. Hannan were students in Dhaka Dental College- the only Dental institution in the country in late nineteen seventies. During that period Oral Health care delivery system was in its primary stage and there was a certain lack of quality dental education in the country.

	The journey between Sapporo and Dhaka began back in 1983 with enrollment of Prof Dr. M.A Hannan, first Bangladeshi student enrolled in Hokkaido University, School of Dentistry under Prof. Hun Ishikwa. The next Bangladeshi student to follow was Prof. Dr. Mohiuddin Ahmed under Prof. Masaaki Kawamura. After his enrollment in graduate school Dr. Mohiuddin Ahmed about his ideas for improvement of oral health service In Bangladesh and the dream of a private dental college. Professor Kawamura after many hours of elaborate discussion finally endorsed the idea. Later under the planning of Prof. Kawamura, Other Bangladeshi students were enrolled in different Departments to form a team of manpower essential for establishing the dream institution – “ Sapporo Dental College “ Other Professor of Hokkaido University who were compassionately involved and offered their unconditional support for realization of the dream were Prof. Akira Amemiya , Prof. Hirokata Shimokobe, Prof. Yasunori Totsuka and Prof. Nobue Inoue and along numerous number of well wishers and friends.

	The true implementation of the dream began with the establishment of “Sapporo Dental Care” in 1993 with an aim to provide service to the patient in multi disciplinary team approach. Dr. Mohiuddin Ahmed and Dr. M. A. Hannan First started working in the clinic and gradually Dr. M. A. Sikder , Dr. M. U. Chowdhury and Dr. Asad uz-Zaman Joined the team of “Sapporo Dental Care” after completing their graduate school at Hokkaido University. In order to make the services available to a greater number of people other dentists competent in different fields of specialization joined their hands to this team notably Dr. Abul Hassan Mahmud and Dr. Lamiya Chowdhury. The team worked relentlessly for realization of their prime objective for many years. Eventually the dream started taking its shape with natural transformation from “Sapporo Dental Care” into “Sapporo Dental College and Hospital” in the year 2000.

	The main goal for establishing this institution was to promote the level of dental education and health care by reducing the consistent shortage of well-trained oral health manpower in the country with a view to developing oral health care facilities in Bangladesh in line with global standards of scientific and technological development and proficiency achieved in this field. In order to achieve that goal a non-profitable charitable organization was formed named “The foundation For Health Education, Service and Research” and the Sapporo Dental College and Hospital (SDCH) was the first Project under this organization. The eminent personalities and professionals of the country who directly contributed and continuously guided for realization of SDCH dream are Mr. Nurul H Khan, former Secretary, Govt. of People Republic of Bangladesh, Chairman Governing Body, since inception of the institution, Prof. S. A. Ashraf, a renowned General Surgeon of the Subcontinent, Founder Principal, Mr. M. Asafuddowlah & Mr. Zakir Ahmed Khan, Former Secretary, Dr. Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, a renowned Scientist and late A. N. M. Eusuf, Late Hedayat Ahmed and Late Shafiqul Aziz Mukul.

	Since its inception, Sapporo Dental College is making continuous endeavor to make it a center of excellence for training undergraduate dental students and have plans to start as a post-graduate training center in near future.

	The institution is the pioneer of community based dental research in Bangladesh, which is continuously setting up progarmme to serve the underprivileged.