Key Points
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The English pattern of an independent dental profession is clarified
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The main origin of dentistry in England in the Early Modern period is reinforced
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The legal basis for independence is demonstrated
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Both surgical and oral medicine functions are included
Abstract
The question of how the profession of dentistry became what it is today, an independent and vigorous one, is an absorbing study. In this analysis of the legislation of the mid-sixteenth century and its effect on modern oral health care delivery, two Acts in particular are notable for their importance in the development of the self-determining practise of dentistry as we now enjoy it in the United Kingdom. The first of these is the 1540 Act uniting the Barbers' and Surgeons' Companies,1 and the second is one dating from two years later; 'A Bill that Persons, being no common Surgeons, may minister Medicines, notwithstanding the Statute'.2 Apart from a brief period of 35 years extending from the Dentists Act of 1921 to the Dentists Act of 1956, when the Dental Board of the United Kingdom (which after 1956 became the General Dental Council), was subject to the over-riding control of the General Medical Council,3 the delivery of oral health care in England has enjoyed an independence which is here identified as having its origin in these Acts 450 years ago in the reign of Henry VIII.
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References
Statutes at Large. 32 Henry VIII C42. An Act concernyng Barbours and Surgeons to be of one companie.
Statutes at Large; 34&35 Henry VIII. C8. A Bill that Persons, being no common Surgeons, may minister Medicines, notwithstanding the Statute.
Hindley-Smith D The General Dental Council, its origins, purpose and functions. Br Dent J 1970; 128: 345–349, 411–414.
Lindsay L A Short History of Dentistry London: John Bale, Sons and Danielsson Ltd 1933.
19 Henry VII C 7. For making of Statutes by Bodies incorporate.
Young S Annals of the Barber Surgeons London: Blades East & Blades 1890 p. 22.
Statutes at Large. 3 Henry VIII C 11. An Act for the appointing of Physicians and Surgeons..
Here taken from Young Annals of the Barber Surgeons Appendix C, in the old English of the Black Letter document rather than the English of the Statutes at Large of the other extracts.
Young Appendix E pp 594–596.
Tomes J et al. Letter to Anthony White, Esq., President, and to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons In Hill A Reform in the Dental Profession London: Trübner & Co 1877 p. 29.
Hargreaves AS 'Touch and Goe.' Toothdrawers in England Lindsay Society for the History of Dentistry 1998.
Bishop M, Gelbier S, Gibbon D Ethics-dental registration in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Br DentJ 2001; 191: 395–400.
Acknowledgements
The authors are greatly indebted to the Librarians of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and of the Royal College of Physicians, and in particular to Mr Christopher Liddle, late of the College of Law.
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Bishop, M., Gelbier, S. & Gibbons, D. Ethics – the early division of oral health care responsibilities by Act of Parliament. Br Dent J 192, 51–53 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4801289
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4801289
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