Iranian Deputy Health Minister for Training Bahram Einollahi underscored Iran's self-sufficiency in producing different instruments and equipment needed for dentistry, and said the country ranks first in the region in training dentists. "While the equipment needed for simple operations, like dental units, were imported in the past, we have now gained self-sufficiency in producing dentistry tools and equipment," Einollahi said in Tehran in August. "Despite the sanctions that we are facing, our dentistry colleges are now self-sufficient," he added. Einollahi also said that Iran ranks first in the region in training skilled dentists. In relevant remarks in 2011, a senior Iranian health ministry official announced that Tehran is prepared to dispatch dentists and dental care specialists to the regional states. "Iran is ready to train oral and dental care specialists and send them to the countries of the region," Head of the Health Ministry's Oral and Dental Care Department Mohammad Hossein Khoshnevisan told FNA at the time. He further stressed Iran's tight cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) in area of oral and dental care.