Dentists Are Not Doctors: It's Official Now

It was well over ten years since the General Dental Council decided to allow its members to use the title “doctor”. This followed a long campaign by “Dr.” Douglas Pike, who drills teeth somewhere in Suffolk:

"Dr Douglas Pike - the General Dental Council's decision to permit use of the title is effective immediately - said that his sole aim was to bring Britain into "harmony" with the rest of the world. Dr Pike, who practises in Sudbury, Suffolk, said: "We are primary healthcare workers just like GPs. We prescribe drugs, take biopsies and X-rays, and our training is very similar," reports The Independent.

Mr Pike was of course talking bollocks. Dentists are dentists. No more. No less. They are no more doctors than the chiropractors and other practitioners of mystic alternative arts that masquerade as medicine. Most quacktitioners would love to call themselves "Dr" but are not prepared to go to medical school to get the training. Chiropractors in particularly have long since coveted the title. Earlier in the year, the irrepressible David Colquhoun of DC’s Improbable Science took the chiropractors to task:

"Who should use the title ‘doctor’? The title is widely abused as shown by Gilbey in this issue of the NZMJ in an article entitled Use of inappropriate titles by New Zealand practitioners of acupuncture, chiropractic, and osteopathy. Meanwhile, Evans and colleagues, also in this issue, discuss usage and attitudes to alternative treatments. Gilbey finds that the abuse of the title doctor is widespread and that chiropractors are the main culprits. An amazing 82% of 146 chiropractics used the title Doctor, and most of them used the title to imply falsely that they were registered medical practitioners," writes DC's Improbable Science.

I feel ashamed and embarrassed by the British dentists. They are not quacks. They are neither chiropractors nor acupuncturists. They have a real scientific training. Why they are not proud of their own independent profession is beyond me. The crowning irony of course is that in the UK it is traditional for surgeons to call themselves “Mr”. By fraudulently calling themselves “doctor” the dentists are not only being dishonest; they are denying their own training.

But now a breath of fresh air. We can always rely on the Advertising Standards Authority for some commonsense:

"Dentists not doctors

"Dentists must not use the title doctor unless they are medically or academically qualified to so, the ASA has ruled. A dentist in Knutsford, Cheshire was rebuked for calling a dentist “Dr” in an advertisement.

"The Times 23 October 2008"

Reported by NHS Blog Doctor.