7 Comments

1. #
   
   Rudy
   February 21st, 2008 at 1:26 pm
   

   I read that interview and you gave some good answers. Didn’t know most of that stuff about your profession. I’m going to see my dentist today and ask her if she should have a DMD title.

   Reply to this comment
2. #
   
   Periapex
   February 21st, 2008 at 3:06 pm
   

   Thanks.

   My dental school recently changed their degree from DDS to DMD and offered to send us new diplomas (for a fee). I never got around to it. So I’m still an old fashioned DDS.

   Reply to this comment
3. #
   
   Rudy
   February 21st, 2008 at 6:07 pm
   

   I just checked with my dentist. She uses DMD. According to her, this is a mid-west/east-coast thing. Dentists in California use DDS.

   Reply to this comment
4. #
   
   Periapex
   February 21st, 2008 at 6:10 pm
   

   Yeah, I’m not sure but I think the trend started more towards the east coast and is slowly working its way across. In Canada I think it’s the other way, but again, I’m not sure.

   Reply to this comment
5. #
   
   person who can't speak english
   February 22nd, 2008 at 6:52 am
   

   actually, i think there are only one or two schools that still use DMD – Tufts University and Boston University, both in MA. i didn’t know your school switched over, i wonder why, since there’s no difference.

   my school just changed names from “school of dental and oral surgery” to “college of dental medicine” in order to “reflect the current curriculum and how it emphasizes the integration of oral health and systemic health” or some other cockamamey schmaltz. i’m sure my tuition money from five years ago paid a lot of money to some useless dudes who spent a lot of time thinking hat one up.

   Reply to this comment
6. #
   
   Periapex
   February 22nd, 2008 at 7:12 am
   

   The name change happened at my school too around the time they changed degree designations. They tossed around the idea of changing to DMD for at least 10 years before it happened.

   Reply to this comment
7. #
   
   Periapex
   February 22nd, 2008 at 9:08 am
   

   As a follow up, here’s an excerpt from OHSU:

   DOCTOR OF DENTAL MEDICINE DEGREE (D.M.D.)
   A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

   In 1839, Drs. Horace Hayden and Chapin Harris of the Baltimore College of Medicine decided to redirect their efforts to establish a specialty department of dentistry in the medical school and instead founded the first separate School of Dentistry. This new school, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, granted the first Doctor of Dental Surgery degree (D.D.S.). A few years later, Harvard, the first university to organize a dental school, changed the degree to Doctor of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.). Harvard renamed the degree because they viewed dentistry as a branch of medicine, not just surgery, and so that diplomas could be written in Latin. Only a few dental schools followed Harvard’s lead and offered the D.M.D. degree. One of these school was the North Pacific Dental College (now Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry).

   In recent years, more schools have changed from the D.D.S. to the D.M.D. Currently, approximately one-third of U.S. dental schools award a D.M.D. degree. The curriculums in all U.S. dental schools are similar and all must meet the same guidelines and standards determined by the American Dental Association.

   Reply to this comment