SEOUL: When Mohammed Al-Keshan left Makkah to study at South Korea’s top university, he found himself not just 8,000 km away from home, but also in a place where everything seemed different from what he was used to.
Al-Keshan was already 32 when he started his dentistry residency at Seoul National University in 2017. He neither knew the language nor culture — and at that time, there were not many other students in Saudi Arabia with the experience of pursuing medicine in South Korea.
“Then, there was loneliness and homesickness. The courses were more intense (than in Saudi Arabia), and it took me about two to three months to adapt,” he told Arab News.
“It is not easy to learn at this age and to adapt to the culture. But the Korean people are very kind and smart. They gave me a lot of advice and were very helpful.”
Al-Keshan became one of the pioneers in a growing medical exchange program under the Saudi and Korean ministries of health that places a special focus on dental sciences.
The Seoul National University School of Dentistry, where he was enrolled, is ranked among the world’s 30 best dental schools.
After completing his residency in 2021 and receiving certification from the Saudi board, he returned to South Korea in 2024 to pursue further professional development at a special facility that his school runs: the Seoul Dental Hospital for the Disabled.
While in other countries dental care for people with disabilities is usually part of general dental care or is provided at specialized departments within broader hospitals, the South Korean hospital is the only dedicated dental hospital in the world exclusively for patients with disabilities.
“Saudi Arabia does not have a whole dental hospital that is dedicated to special needs care like the one at SNU. So, I would like to coordinate with the Ministry of Health to create one when I go back to Saudi Arabia,” Al-Keshan said.
“I would like to help build something similar … because people with special needs have different dentistry needs.”
The Saudi-Korean medical exchange program, which began in 2015, initially accepted no more than five dentists per year. The number has since more than doubled.
“I was the second batch that the MOH was sending to Korea. The first batch was in 2015 … It was usually under five people,” Al-Keshan said.
“I think it is around 11 or 12. So, there are many more people now.”
For South Korea, the initiative has become a model for global cooperation in healthcare and is resulting in a wave of medical professionals bringing global expertise back to the Kingdom.
Prof. Lee Yong-moo, head of SNU Dental Hospital, vowed during this year’s commencement ceremony for Saudi doctors to continue the training program to “nurture talent to develop Saudi Arabia’s dentistry field” as the program “has become a milestone global exchange project that contributes to the growing friendship between the two countries.”
Saudi dentist Youssef Bajnaid after graduating from a Korean language course at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in 2024. (Youssef Bajnaid)
As the program expands, more young Saudi dentists are coming to South Korea to study at its top institutions. One of them is Youssef Bajnaid, a 33-year-old dentist from Jeddah, who arrived in South Korea in 2023. He is currently completing his residency in prosthodontics at Kyung Hee University — another institution known for its strong dental program.
He studied dentistry for seven years in Saudi Arabia and after a year of learning Korean at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies is now a resident in the prosthodontics department.
“My batch is 11 doctors … We want to know the (latest) treatment methods in the dentistry field,” he said.
“And I want to represent my country during my work. I get a lot of support from my professors at Kyung Hee … We have the same vision.”
