TDC Contradicts Medical Council, Says OMFS Qualified for Hair Transplants
“This clarification is being issued to prevent public confusion and to uphold the integrity of dental and OMFS practice,” said the TDC in its notice, cautioning against being misled by statements from bodies “other than the DCI or respective State Dental Councils.”
Hyderabad: The Telangana Dental Council (TDC) pushed back against the Telangana Medical Council’s recent warning that oral and maxillofacial surgeons (OMFS) are not qualified to perform hair transplants or facial aesthetic procedures. In a public notice, the TDC stated that OMFS professionals, trained under Dental Council of India (DCI) regulations, are authorised to perform such procedures.
The notice comes days after the Telangana Medical Council, citing the National Medical Commission (NMC), declared that OMFS professionals “lack formal surgical knowledge and training” to carry out aesthetic interventions. The NMC had recommended limiting such procedures to plastic surgeons and dermatologists with MCh/DNB or MD/DNB qualifications, where aesthetics and hair transplant are part of the core curriculum.
However, the TDC referenced the 2019 Gazette notification by the DCI, which amended the MDS curriculum to explicitly include facial aesthetic surgeries, bone grafts, facelifts, blepharoplasty, otoplasty, and even hair transplants as skill enhancement training. The TDC also cited three official DCI communications issued between 2021 and 2022 affirming OMFS eligibility for such surgeries.
“This clarification is being issued to prevent public confusion and to uphold the integrity of dental and OMFS practice,” said the TDC in its notice, cautioning against being misled by statements from bodies “other than the DCI or respective State Dental Councils.”
With two state-level statutory councils now publicly contradicting each other, one citing the NMC and the other the DCI, the standoff has sparked concern within the medical and dental communities - the issue may soon require clarification at the central regulatory level to avoid conflicting interpretations.