International Journal of Education and Social Science (IJESS)

ASEAN 2015 was created in response to the global trend of liberalization and regional integration. Under the free flow of services in the ASEAN Economic Community pillar, qualified professionals including dentists can freely move and practice their profession in any ASEAN country. While the Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) for Dental Practitioners was provided to strengthen the professional capabilities, the big question is, how ready are the dentists to embrace the challenges ahead? The descriptive method of research was used to assess the level of readiness of dentists in four ASEAN countries as to the competency standards stipulated in the MRA for Dental Practitioners and compare them according to specific characteristics. Description of the specific curriculum components of one representative dental school in four ASEAN countries, and the domestic regulations, qualifications and requirements of these ASEAN Members regarding dental examinations, registration and renewal of registration were also done as a basis for curriculum restructuring to enhance dental education. Questionnaire was utilized to gather pertinent data where frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, T-test and Analysis of variance were employed to treat gathered data. Results revealed that dentists in country B are ready to a “very large extent” in professionalism, biomedical technical and clinical sciences, acquiring and using information, clinical information gathering, and diagnosis and treatment planning core competencies. Dentists in country D on the other hand show the same level of readiness in professionalism, clinical information gathering and oral health promotion while dentists in countries A and C in clinical information gathering only. When level of readiness was compared there was no significant difference in gender, number of years in active practice, type of practice, area of specialization and country. However, a significant difference was seen in age particularly at 46-50 years old in acquiring and using information and clinical information gathering aspects. There is therefore a need for curriculum developers and innovators to restructure the dentistry curriculum to be competency-based to be able to align it to the competency standards set by the MRA for Dental Practitioners.