ATTRACTING top-notch professionals to tutor Charles Sturt University (CSU) Orange dental students, has been one of the key factors in turning out high class graduands, head of the dental school professor David Wilson said .
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"We have had great feedback already about our students," he said.
Professor Wilson said prior to the final semester which has now finished, CSU in Orange commissioned a survey among the 32 dental graduands to see where they intended to work.
He said the majority of students indicated they would like to work in rural areas.
However he conceded the opportunities at the moment to provide services to some rural and remote areas hasn't fully opened up as yet.
"This is our first group and it is early days yet," he said.
"We have had students go to places like Port Macquarie, Albury and the Central Coast," he said.
"In saying that there is a big demand for dentists in Port Macquarie for example," he said.
Four of the dentists are staying in Orange to work with one going in to private practice, one to work for the Aboriginal Medical Service, one to be employed at Orange hospital and two to be employed at CSU.
Professor Wilson said of the 32 dental graduands surveyed last semester 24 indicated in the survey they wanted to work in a rural area.
"And of that group 15 had already come from a rural background of a community the size of or smaller than Orange with a further breakdown of 10 of that group indicating to us rural health was their career path."
He said one of the students is taking up a position in Forbes but other remote rural communities may not be able to benefit from the experience of the graduands just yet.
"These things take time to unfold - we won't be able to fill all those holes straight away," he said.
The university is hoping for an intake of 40 dental degree students next year.
The first cohort of dental and oral health graduands finished their course at the university two weeks ago.