Is it time to ditch the Doctor of Dental Surgery degree?

An interesting article titled “Why 2 dental degrees?: Time for unification of degrees and oral health care providers” written by Donald B. Giddon and William V. Giannobile appears in the March 21, 2023 Journal of the American Dental Association. The article calls into question why dentistry is the only major health care profession that has two equivalent degrees: the Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry (DMD) degree and the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree.

In the article discussion is made of how there is no useful purpose to have two different degrees in dentistry. The authors state that this causes confusion among patients, dentists, and other health care professionals. The authors believe that dentistry should have a single degree, the doctor of dental medicine, which is more accurate to what occurs in dentistry today.

The authors say that there are no publicly available measures, like U.S. board scores, to demonstrate that schools that award DDS and DMD are equivalanet. Public perception has been that DMD graduates are better trained than those with DDS degrees. Research conducted in the past has shown that the perception is that DMD dentists are more qualified than the DDS dentists. Research has shown that the public perceives MD as more qualified than DMD dentists but DMD dentists are more qualified than those with other degrees like Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Doctor of Podiatric Medicine degree, and of course DDS.

doctor of dental medicine - Is it time to ditch the Doctor of Dental Surgery degree?
Photo by Olga Guryanova on Unsplash

The authors also argue that DMD degrees better show the link between oral health and overall health. Many studies in recent years have shown associations between oral heath and overal health such yet these have been historically challenging to integrate medicine into the training and practice of dentists. The authors also say that many systemic and mental disorders can manifestation as a dysfunction or dysmorphia of the teeth. Further the mouth and teeth are necessary for survival and socialization. Some dentists have also in recent years started to provide limited preventive primary care, such as chairside screening for chronic diseases. Further more patients these days are more comfortable with dentists assisting with physical and mental healthcare.

It seems to be clear that it is time for dentistry to eliminate DDS degree and create a unified degree that best reflects dentistry role in healthcare. Certainly challenges exist in making this a reality and only time will tell how it plays out in the years to to come.

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