Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:56 pm
#1665052
PaulB wrote:As for "right" or "courtesy", some dentists seem to refer themselves as Dr. these days. That has not always been the case, so when did that happen and is it a right or a courtesy or something else?
As I said, I'm curious and guess that many people won't be aware of the distinctions.
In the 80s dentists as a body decided that they should have a right to call themselves 'Dr' in view of their long and complicated training and petitioned for this to happen:
There was initially some resistance from the old school on the basis that staring in somone's gob for several years didn't constitute a full medical education, but most people couldn't care less what they were called so they all earned the right to be called 'Dr'.
It happens that many dentists are double qualified and are Fellows of one of the surgical Colleges in Maxillo-Facial Surgery as well and will call themselves 'Mr'.
(History lesson: only Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England are strictly entitled to use 'Mr': Fellows of the RCS of Edinburgh and of RCS&P of Ireland as well as Australian and American Surgical Colleges still use 'Dr'.)
In the UK however any Consultant in one of the Surgical Specialities will call himself 'Mr' for reasons I guess of consistency and to avoid confusing the great unwashed that PaulB alludes to.
There is however no logic tin a female surgeon calling herself 'Mrs'.
Peter
Last edited by PeteSpencer on Sun Jan 13, 2019 6:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Pete S as was
‘Work in progress’.
‘Work in progress’.