A survey in the West Midlands on the use of the courtesy title 'Dr' by UK dental practitioners.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the 1995 General Dental Council's decision to remove restrictions on GDPs using the courtesy title 'Dr'.


METHODS
In 1996 this survey undertook a qualitative analysis of the views of four groups involved in primary dental care: 72 GDPs, 25 medical practitioners, 46 vocational dental practitioners, 89 patients.


RESULTS
These indicated that some respondents thought that there would possibly be better quality of patient care due to improved medical history taking, that the public's image of the dental profession might be enhanced and that 87% of newly qualified dentists were in favour of the use of the title 'Dr'.


CONCLUSIONS
Use of the title appears to be on the increase and if use of the title does become widespread, then all practitioners will need to re-evaluate their choice of personal titles. GDPs need to consider if using the title 'Dr' will encourage patients to give more detailed medical histories.
Thomas
D J
DJ
Birmingham University School of Dentistry.
Allsopp
J
J
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D009275:Names; D011897:Random Allocation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom