UNREGISTERED DENTISTS

Hokitika Guardian, 18 September 1924, Page 3

UNREGISTERED DENTISTS

PROFESSION OPPOSES BILL. AUCKLAND, Sept. 1-7. Strong objecting is taken hy the New Zealand? Dentists’ Association to the Dentists’ Amendment Bill, which planuses to give another chance to uni'Oei tert'd dentists to gain entrance to [lie profession. The principal grounds fur objection are that the admission ol semi-trained men and women will I""'Cl . t be standard of the profession ; that it will he opposed to the well-being of tbe public, and that it will he against tile interests of students now studying :<t the dental school. Mr Claud 11. Aloses. president of the Yew Zealand Dentists’ Association, oil Saturday discussed the matter. l.e association, he said, maintained that those the Bill was intended to assist Were merely dental mechanics. Their oldv knowledge of dental surgery was wlu'it (hey bad picked up in the course of their employment. I hey might hate June some operative work, hut they bad no theoretical training. It was because so many accidents could happen that theoretical training was essential. For instance il was possible for a patient to bleed to death as the result of the extraction of teeth, unless the dentist knew how to stop the bleeding. The medical profession realised during recent years that man) ills could he caused hy faulty extraction. Ft was well-known that Mr Roosevelt, ex-president of the Cnitcd States, died from the effects of had dentistry. I’ruI'cssor Pickerill, chairman of the hoard which examined candidates who sought registration under the Act ol 1921-22. had stated that no candidate had been failed for lack of theoretical knowledge. The examiners had gone through the papers no fewer than three times, each time raising t-ie marks to allow the best candidate t'» ,r • | through. The only ones laded were thus" who larked sufficient knowledge ill the practice and throrv ol lilling teeth and making plates. About lift\- had heen admitted to the proH'ssion under the Act of 1921-22, and some thirty were all’eeted hy the I"’'"'';'' Bill. Representations against the bill liiid been made by the assneiatioll. which, when the farmer Bill was draft,.J bad received the promi-e ol the tben Minister for Health, that the Act would not be further interfered with. Mr Moms added that those for whom the former amendment and present Bill were intended had not started out to become dentists. They had known quite well that their status would be that of mechanics and that they (mild not practise. There was no justification for lowering the standard by the admission ol these people.