Two students from DJ College of Dental Sciences and Research (DJCDSR) have earned podium positions at the Health Talk Competition organised to mark National Public Health Dentistry Day. Sristi secured First place in Session 2, and Priyaranjan secured Third place in Session 1. The competition was conducted by the Department of Public Health Dentistry at Yenepoya Dental College, Yenepoya (Deemed to be University), in association with the Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry.
The recognition placed students from DJ College of Dental Sciences and Research alongside participants drawn from dental institutions in several states, reflecting the standard of academic preparation and communication training within the college community.
| Student | Award | Session | Institution |
| Sristi | First place | Session 2 | DJ College of Dental Sciences and Research |
| Priyaranjan | Third place | Session 1 | DJ College of Dental Sciences and Research |
What is National Public Health Dentistry Day?
National Public Health Dentistry Day is observed on 19 June each year in India. The day draws attention to public health dentistry, the branch of dentistry concerned with the prevention of oral disease and the promotion of oral health at the level of communities and populations rather than individual patients alone. Activities held around the observance commonly include awareness drives, academic competitions, and outreach programmes that encourage students and practitioners to consider oral health within the wider framework of community well-being.
Public health dentistry assesses the oral health needs of populations, identifies the factors that influence those needs, and develops strategies to widen access to preventive care. Observances such as National Public Health Dentistry Day provide a platform for dental students to engage with these themes and to communicate them to broader audiences in a structured setting.
The Importance of Participating In A Health Talk Competition
A health talk competition typically requires participants to prepare and deliver a structured presentation on a chosen oral health or public health subject within a set time. The format assesses clarity of communication, command of subject matter, and the ability to convey health information in a manner that an audience can understand and act upon. These are core competencies for public health dentistry, where effective communication often determines whether preventive messages reach the communities that need them.
How wide was the participation at the competition?
The Health Talk Competition was conducted across four sessions, with participants representing dental colleges from multiple states. Institutions taking part included colleges from Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu, which gave the competition a genuinely national character.
Competitions of this scale allow students to benchmark their abilities against peers from institutions across the country. They also create opportunities for academic exchange, encouraging participants to learn from the range of perspectives that students from different regions bring to shared public health themes.
Who organised the Health Talk Competition?
The Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry is the professional body that represents the specialty in India and supports academic, research, and community initiatives in the field.
The observance was aligned with several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, as indicated on the official event communication. These included Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being), Goal 4 (Quality Education), and Goal 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The alignment situates the competition within a wider commitment to health promotion, education, and collaboration across institutions.
Why does public health dentistry matter for communities?
Oral health is closely connected to general health and quality of life. Untreated dental disease can affect nutrition, speech, self-confidence, and overall well-being, and it carries an economic cost for families and health systems. Public health dentistry addresses these challenges at scale by focusing on prevention, health education, and equitable access to care, rather than treatment alone.
For dental students, engagement with public health dentistry builds an understanding of how oral health is shaped by social, economic, and environmental factors. Competitions that ask students to articulate these ideas, such as the Health Talk Competition, reinforce the principle that a dental professional serves not only individual patients but also the health of the community. The participation of DJ College of Dental Sciences and Research students in this competition reflects that broader orientation.
What does this recognition reflect about DJ College of Dental Sciences and Research?
DJ College of Dental Sciences and Research was founded in 1999 and is among the top five private dental colleges established in Uttar Pradesh. The institution offers undergraduate and postgraduate dental education across the principal clinical specialties, including public health dentistry, and operates from a campus in the Delhi NCR region of Uttar Pradesh.
Recognition at a national observance such as National Public Health Dentistry Day reflects the emphasis the college places on student development beyond the clinical setting. Encouraging students to take part in academic competitions, public speaking, and community-oriented activities supports the formation of well-rounded dental professionals who are prepared to contribute to both patient care and population health.
How does the college environment support achievements of this kind?
Academic results such as these do not occur in isolation. They tend to emerge from a learning environment that combines structured teaching, clinical exposure, and the chance to engage with subjects beyond the core curriculum. Several features of the college are relevant in this context, and they help explain why students are positioned to perform well on national platforms.
- The dedicated Department of Public Health Dentistry offers postgraduate study in the field, giving associated students exposure to community-based dentistry, epidemiology, and preventive programmes. This is the same subject area addressed by the National Public Health Dentistry Day Health Talk Competition, so participants begin with a grounded foundation from which to develop informed presentations on oral health themes.
- Clinical training is supported by an attached teaching hospital that operates around the clock across more than a dozen departments. Regular contact with patients allows students to connect classroom learning with practical care, an experience that shapes how they understand and explain health information to others.
- Facilities including a skills laboratory and a computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD-CAM) laboratory support pre-clinical and digital dentistry training within a large campus.
Alongside teaching and clinical work, faculty members and students contribute to original dental research, including published studies, which exposes the wider student community to evidence-based and inquiry-driven practice. Taken together, these elements form the setting in which participation in national academic events takes place.
What does this mean for future dental students?
For students who are deciding where to pursue dental education, achievements at national observances offer a practical reference point. A result of this kind indicates that students are encouraged and supported to take part in activities beyond the prescribed syllabus, and that the institution treats communication, community engagement, and academic initiative as part of professional formation rather than as optional extras.
The benefit is cumulative. Each cohort that participates in competitions, conferences, and outreach adds to a record that subsequent students can look to, and it helps establish a peer culture in which active participation is regarded as normal rather than exceptional. For a prospective student comparing institutions, a visible pattern of student involvement in events such as the National Public Health Dentistry Day Health Talk Competition is one of several factors worth examining, considered alongside clinical exposure, faculty research, infrastructure, and the range of patient care available on campus.
Public health dentistry, in particular, rewards students who can translate technical knowledge into clear public messaging. Future students with an interest in community oral health, preventive care, or health communication may find value in a setting where these skills are exercised in practice and tested against peers from across the country. The recognition earned by Sristi and Priyaranjan shows how such opportunities can translate into measurable outcomes for individual students, and how a single result can contribute to the academic identity that future entrants inherit.
Conclusion
The achievements of Sristi and Priyaranjan at the National Public Health Dentistry Day Health Talk Competition mark a meaningful contribution by DJ College of Dental Sciences and Research to a national academic occasion dedicated to community oral health. By taking the podium in a field that spanned institutions from across the country, the two students demonstrated both command of their subject and the ability to present it clearly to an audience. The college congratulates both students on their recognition and acknowledges the value of events that bring dental institutions together in support of oral health awareness.
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