title: The dentist as doctor: a rallying call for the future.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  When the future status of dentistry is considered, scholarship in the profession plays a key role. It is by scholarship that dentistry distinguishes itself as a learned and esteemed profession, and this position paper aims to explore and promote this vital core value.
  
  
  METHODS
  As Fellows of the American Dental Education Association's selective Leadership Institute, the authors spent over a year critically examining the role of scholarship in dentistry, which was identified as a critical issue for the profession. A review of the health care literature was conducted to inform this paper's position.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Scholarship is clearly the trait that distinguishes a profession from a trade, as evidenced by trends in other health care professions, as well as dentistry. Although dentistry is a learned profession rightly meriting that distinction, there are a few notable areas that can be improved.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Because scholarship defines a profession, dentists as doctors and the leaders in oral health should demonstrate the highest scholarship; absence of scholarship risks perception of dentistry as a trade. All dentists can consistently manifest scholarship by integrating basic science, as well as by incorporating the dental evidence-base, into daily practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Restorative Dentistry & Prosthodontics, University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston, TX, USA. Electronic address: Ryan.Quock@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Ryan L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Quock
authors.affiliation: Division of Periodontology, University of Kentucky College of Dentistry, Lexington, KY, USA.
authors.forename: Mohanad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Sabbagh
authors.affiliation: Department of Dental Medicine, Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Margaret K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.affiliation: Center for Craniofacial Regeneration, University of Pittsburgh School of Dental, Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Charles S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Sfeir
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Surgery and Hospital Dentistry, Indiana University School of, Dentistry, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Bennett
mesh_terms: D003813:Dentistry / Q000639:trends*; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000639:trends*; D055094:Evidence-Based Dentistry; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000639:trends*