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Comment by barking | Hacker News Reader

Dentists in the UK receive a bachelor degree, as do doctors. However it was a sanctionable offence in the eyes of the General Dental Council for a dentist to title themselves Dr.

This was purely a Dental Council regulation, anyone at the time could call themselves doctor, it wasn't a criminal offence.

With the arrival of dentists from EU countries who were allowed to do so, UK dentists felt they were being put at a disadvantage in the eyes of the general public.

The GDC eventually relented with an announcement to the effect that dentists doing this would not be taken action against any longer.

But they clearly didn't approve!

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In the US they have the title of DDS (doctor of dental surgery).

Though in the US, they receive a postgraduate degree (as do medical doctors), not just a bachelor's.

Technically they could receive that degree without a bachelor's degree, but I've never heard of anyone getting into medical or dental school without having received an undergraduate degree.

Typically, here, people start studying medicine or dentistry straight out of secondary school at 17 or 18 years of age. Medics qualify 5 or 6 years later with an MB (Medical bachelor), dentistry (Bachelor of Dental Surgery) typically takes one year less though the summer breaks for dental students can be as short as just one month. They can be back doing practical clinical dentistry in early August while the medical students are off until the start of October.

The title "doctor" has been abused by different trades.

Optometrist is Doctors of Optometry (O.D.s). Pharmacist is Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D). Nurse has the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). Veterinarian is Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM). Physical therapist is Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT). Chiropractor is Doctor of Chiropractic (DC). Of course dentist is Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS).

Medical doctors have to use another term Physician to avoid the confusion.

The wikipedia article has some interesting history:

"Doctor is an academic title that originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning.[1] The word is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb docēre [dɔˈkeːrɛ] 'to teach'. It has been used as an academic title in Europe since the 13th century..."

"In the United States, the use of the title "Doctor" is dependent upon the setting. The title is commonly used socially by physicians and those holding doctoral degrees;[57] however, there was formerly a division between Letitia Baldrige and Miss Manners on its social usage by those who are not physicians.[58] Baldrige saw this usage as acceptable, while in contrast, Miss Manners wrote that "only people of the medical profession correctly use the title of doctor socially," but supports those who wish to use it in social contexts in the spirit of addressing people according to their wishes."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_(title) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_(title)#Development_in_... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_(title)#United_States

I wonder if I should claim to be a Doctor of Software Development. Can we get an industry association to bestow that title?

Seriously, though, I think it's a real shame that so many professions claim to be doctors. A bachelor's degree shows initiation into a subject; a master's degree shows mastery of it; a doctorate indicates that one has increased the sum total of human knowledge in that subject. A doctorate should IMHO be rare.

The way I see it, doctors are authorities in their field that can publish original research.

In Greek the equivalent to "dentist" is "odontiatros" which translates exactly as "tooth doctor". So for me a dentist not regarded as doctor sounds extremely weird.

same goes for German.

Same in Arabic: طبيبة أسنان = doctor of teeth

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