Do dentists use stethoscopes ? Dentist are doctors ?
The age old debate has not reached to an amicable solution yet, Are Dentist Worthy, Eligible and entitled to crown themselves with the title of Doctors, or is the Honor to be restricted to those experts who have chosen the other parts of the body as their area of practice?
Very controversial and complicated question don’t you think so? The answer is “No, Dentist should not be called a Doctor” so they do not require use of stethoscope. This is probably one of the biggest debatable issue in the medical world.
Whenever a dentist uses the prefix “Dr.” before introducing oneself, first assumption made by the opposite person is that he or she must be a physician or a doctor of medicine. And so, we come back to the question that whether we the dentist community are eligible enough to hold the crown to call ourselves Doctor. The article proliferates upon the two sides of this debate, with the author volumizing her Individual opinion at the end.
Dentists are given the title of Doctors when they end going to dental faculty.
To grow to be a dentist, someone have to go through an exceptional deal of medical education. Dentists don’t just find out about tooth. They also have a look at general anatomy, physiology, microbiology, pharmacology, embryology and a number of other topics same as MBBS student study.
Dentists are each bit as educated and trained as physicians. Dentist accumulate the same schooling as a physician for the first 3 years in their dental education alongside their dental clinical training.
Beyond that dentist is the only who specializes in intra oral cavity, which extends on your head, neck and face – the craniofacial area (critical components of your body!) A dentist is a professional clinical expert, licensed to practice preventive, diagnostic remedies for malformation, oral disease, and injuries related to craniofacial region, as well as history schooling enables dentists to examine you and your body as a wholesome package – when looking after your teeth.
Let me answer, why this query is the most important debate or meme of the medical and dental world :-
It is due to huge ignorance towards oral health.Many study has shown that oral problems such as halitosis (oral malodor) and dental esthetics can have significant influence on once psychological and social behavior.Perfect healthy smile give boost in social as well professional carrier.People only bother about their teeth occasionally when someone has pointed out about mal-odor or crooked smile. Imagine a world without dentists, where you are unable to enjoy your favorite food or smile heartily because of untreated oral conditions like gum pain, tooth sensitivity, unaesthetic smile with fractured or missing teeth.
Let’s see why and how dentist should neither feel or call any down as compared to physicians;
Below stated are the points of why a dentist should never feel inferior as compare to physician;
- Pharmacology being one of the many common subjects in the academics of MBBS as well as dental, both are eligible to prescribe the drug of choice for complicated health issue for oral or general.
- Many people are well aware that in MBBS many procedures cannot be done without anesthesia but what the general public fails to understand is that same goes for dental procedures too, many dental procedures like full mouth-Root canal, tooth extraction, dental surgeries like Implant placement, dis-Impaction, Mandibulectomy, Cleft lip and cleft palate Repairs, Alveoloplasty, Gingival Flap Surgery etc required local anesthesia as well as general too.
- when the Indian Government itself recognizes a graduate in BDS (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) as a doctor then why this educated general public fails to do same.
- MBBS & BDS candidates give same entrance exam call“NEET”after 12th standard.
- The “S” in the BDS stands for Surgery, and Surgeries are performed by doctors (surgeons).
‘Asking whether a dentist is a doctor or not, is like asking if omelet is the product of poultry or not.’People who Dentist are the shrink of oral health, because dentist not only look at a patient’s mouth, gums, and teeth, but they also keep an eye out for signs such as swelling, discoloration,paresthesia, drooping of mouth, bleeding disorder and much more.Our teeth are not separate to the rest of our bodies. When dentists deal with teeth, they’re supporting to make certain that their patient stays in exact bodily fitness. The health of our tooth can impact our health in lots of manner.
As an instance, teeth decay can lead to coronary heart ailment. Many studies relate oral health with general health, for eg; advance periodontal diseases like gingivitis and periodontitis often are a sign to chronic and acute illness like cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis and many more.In many instances, a dentist has observed the signs and symptoms of a clinical condition earlier than different medical doctors.
Dentists can diagnose your general health just by looking into your mouth,now, isn’t it enough to earn the tag of a doctor? for example,If a person is suffering from health issues like stress, diabetes, gastro intestinal problems, hormonal disorder, chronic inflammation, anemia and some serious conditions such as HIV, TB and insomniaetc, it becomes an integral part of dental studies to be well versed with their effect as well the effect of the related medication with respect to the oral cavity. The best dentists and physicians will insist on working together to help you reach your optimal health.
Vis versa majority of MBBS doctors fail to co-relate oral and general health, Most of the gynecologists miss out to check on oral heathof the patient who are planning to conceive because gynecologist probably don’t know that oral infections during pregnancy can have some adverse effects on fetus may at extent of pre-term birth. Even oncology and radiotherapist should refer the patients to dentists to check for any foci or infection before undergoing chemo or radiotherapy and after chemotherapy of oral cancer dentist can help patient to get prosthesis done.
Contrary the Dentist community themselves have a contribution in triggering the debate of them not being considered as doctors. Most of them they simply try to dodge the medical aspects and they fail to treat the patient in a holistic manner and they blame it on their role only as a dentist.Most of them try to avoid these matters by saying ” I am just a dentist how am I supposed to know these things”. So there is every need that dentists also should contribute to the overall health of the patient than just treating the teeth and should see the patient as whole. They also need to continuously update themselves to stay within the game.
No dentist should ever have to feel inadequate or unworthy of the term doctor, after many years of intensive study and hard work. People in India dentists are there only to fix teeth and nothing else. But do they know that mouth is also a part of human body and manifestations of many systemic diseases can be observed and diagnosed by looking at mouth because anything which can affect the body can affect the mouth.
Dentist are not attributed the Honor merely because they like the title ,they are accredited the same because they have toiled , studied and equipped themselves to do justice to the title , they just have to put their entire knowledge into practice and IMA needs to create awareness on the dental health issue to amicably rest this age old debate.
