This has bugged me for ages, in fact since 1999.
If you are a Dentist reading this blog then you’re not a Doctor (unless you have a Doctorate - we have three Doctorates in our practice, and I am not one) but let’s examine this a little bit more closely.
Prior to 1999 Dentists were unable to use the ‘courtesy’ title Dr that medical Doctors used. For clarification, the medical Dr title is a courtesy title applied to Doctors for their social contract and status within their social order.
This is a generally accepted convention.
A proper Doctor is one who has a Doctorate, a PhD, an MD, a DDS. For anyone else to be called Dr is to denigrate the achievement of a PhD or similar and should be explained to people so they understand the difference.
But here is the thing, Dentists were given a higher title, Dentists were given the titles of Surgeons.
Imagine when you go to hospital to see an Orthopedic Surgeon, you see a Mr (if he is a consultant or has passed his Royal College exams) not a Dr. Doctors are reserved for physicians (medics) the title Mr, Miss or Mrs are reserved for Surgeons. Dentists were given the higher title of Surgeon to differentiate the fact that their degree was surgical and when they qualified they were qualified as Surgeons. In 1999 in the ‘Call me Doctor’ campaign we negotiated a way for the higher title or Surgeon for the ‘lower’ title or Dr as a means to gain greater respect from the public?
At University when the new graduates pass their exams they get a badge to put on which says that they’re a Doctor. This I disagree with entirely.
Just for the record, it doesn’t get you better seats in a restaurant and no body cares if it says Dr on your credit card.
Respect is something you gain from your actions, something you are given as a gift over time for behaving in a correct fashion; for supporting, for mentoring and for leading by example. It is not something that is conferred upon you with two letters at the start of your name. My name is Colin, and everyone knows that my name is Colin. I have a surgical Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh and I am entitled to call myself Mr as a higher title, but my name is still Colin. For a laugh though, click on the link below for the Simpsons episode where Lisa fell in the river at the theme park and had to receive medial attention, it’s only 10 seconds long.
Blog Post Number - 1359
Leave a comment