Many people think that as the dentists are also called ‘Dr.’ can treat any kind of disease regarding the whole body, but here i am going to tell what the two really mean so that we can spot the difference.
Physician: A Physician is a person who having been completed his education in a medical school, duly recognized in the country in which it is located, has sucessfully completed the prescribed cources of studies in medicine and has acquired the requisite qualification to be legally licenced to practice medicine using independant judgement to promote community and individual health.
Th Physician has the licence to treat the patient regarding his general health and any disease in his whole body.
Dentist: A dentist is a person licenced to practice dentistry under the laws of the appropriate state province teritiory or nation. A dentist has the qualification to treat the ailments concerning the Oral cavity, until yester years it was only concerning the oral cavity but in the recent years there are many advancements which does not restrict the dentist only to the oral cavity but the whole face is involved( Oral and maxilofacial surgery) with reconstruction of the whole face is done.
A Dentist has the licence to treat the diseases concerned to the oral cavity and the face( Oral and maxillo facial surgery) and does not have the licence to treat the general ailments although he has sufficient knowledge and education about the whole body.
So the next time you go to a Dentist for your dental checkup and if he asks you about your general ailments then do not think what does he know about the general body as he is only treating the Oral Cavity.
You have to be clear about all your Medical conditions as many of the Oral or Dental disorders are related to Medical problems you are having, like
- In case of Pregnancy and puberty – you can see Gingival inflammation.
- In case of Diabetes we can see floating cysts which keep changing positions.
- Certain dental procedures should not be done if you are taking Anti coagulant medication like asprin.
So keeping in mind these instances you have to be clear about all your medical problems with the Dentist. As based on this your treatment plan will be decided.
General physician are treating only general problem like fever, health stomach and other injuries related diseases but the dentist are treating only mouth and tooth problems like gum, tooth, implants and smile design.
In my country (Nigeria), dental surgeons have same training as physicians. They are taught by the same lecturers and write the same exams, both in preclinicals and clinicals (internal medicine and surgery), except for a few differences, plus their dental surgery work load. So, in my country, dentists are are physicians with special interest in the mouth
U r really rights frnd
The regular controversial question is whether a dentist can be called a DOCTOR?
There is no controversy in it, Doctor is defined as a person qualified to treat someone who is ill or treat someone medically. So it depends on whether you feel that your oral problems do not come under medical issues or not. But once you get tooth ache or your Wisdom tooth starts acting up you will feel that, YES a Dentist is also a Doctor.
Some dentists in India are using prescription pad to write medicines/treatment procedures for oral problems and diseases but using blank plain paper to write medicines for general cases which only general physician can see and they also give the medicines themselves from their clinic.