CONTROL OF DENTISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 208, 3 September 1935, Page 6

CONTROL OF DENTISTS.

In the interest of the public the Minister's proposal to set up a Council to control dentists requires careful watching for reasons that have already been stated in connection with previous moves in the same direction. What is feared is that the power given to the Council to discipline the profession will be used to suppress advertising, and that this will result in. higher charges to the public. In some quarters advertising is classified as "infamous conduct," and when the establishment of a Council was proposed two years ago it was stated that the amendments contemplated under it would even limit the size of name plates, notice boards and window lettering. It is alleged that an Australian dentist was struck off the rolls because the lettering on his sign was too large. To give a body statutory power to impose such restrictions would be a gross infringement of liberty. A dentist has a right to advertise. An association of dentists has a right to deny him entry into their organisation, but it has no right whatever to interfere with his practice. Moreover, advertising by dentists benefits the public in two ways. It brings before people the necessity for care of the teeth, and by increasing the turnover of the dentist it enables the dentist to lower his charges. By the existing law the dentist, whether he advertises or not, must be a qualified man. If dentists are debarred from advertising there will be no more cheap dentistry in the strictly literal sense of the word, so the public will suffei*.