The Dentist of the Future: Dental Surgeon or Oral Physician?

Abstract

There is an accepted recognition of the need for the dentist to be able to diagnose and treat the number of older dental patients with more complex health care problems. Therefore in the future, dentists and other dental professionals will need to broaden their role in the delivery of overall health care and the designation of a dentist as an 'oral physician’ as well as a 'dental surgeon’ would seem logical. To deliver this developing role it will be necessary to ensure that undergraduate dental teaching programmes are designed appropriately to provide clinicians with the necessary clinical skills.18