TRAINING IN DENTISTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18631, 12 February 1924, Page 8

TRAINING IN DENTISTRY.

DEFENCE OF DUNEDIN SCHOOL REPORT BY BEAN OF FACULTY COMMITTEE NOT COMPETENT MORE MONEY THE ONLY NEED. [EI TELEGRAPH. —OWN - CORRESPONDENT.] DUNEDIN, Monday. The dean of the dental faculty has submitted a statement to the Otago University Council on the report of the committee appointed' (by. the Minister for Education to inquire into " the provision of accommodation for the (training lof dental students." The statement is as follows: — " The report falls distinctly into three portions. The first is the real report of the committee in which, after visiting Dunedin, a new building is unanimously recommended on the Beverley site at a cost of £38,000. That is to say, the request of the council and our contention of the utter inadequacy of the present building is entirely upheld. s " The second portion is only a majorny addendum by the assistant director of Education (a professor of physics), an! architect, and a dentist, none of whom has had personal experience of University ■ dental training. This second portion suggests without any adequate reasons advanced at all that, the Dental School should be transferred to, Auckland. The only reason which is advanced is that more clinical material would be available. In all other facilities the report admits that Auckland is entirely lacking. " The third portion of the report is a minority report by the director of dental hygiene, who is entirely opposed, both on economic and academic grounds, either to a second school or to a removal of the present school to Auckland. " With the first portion of the report (with the exception of some unwarranted remarks qpon the training of students), I can only entirely agree. With the second portion, the majority addendum, I entirely disagree. It is questionable whether the committee was empowered to extend • its report to embrace an alternative school for Auckland. It is unquestionable that the personnel of the committee was entirely unsuited to make such a report." Dental and Medical. The statement deals with the training of a dentist and points out that it comprises more than a knowledge of pure operative and mechanical dentistry. "To establish a Dental School apart from a medical school," continues the dean, M is unthinkable. The overhead expenses of providing professors, accommodation, class rooms, laboratories, and scientific apparatus for dental students only woula be enormous. To divorce dental surgery from medicine, of which it is a branch, would be the most retrograde step New Zealand could make. The British Medical Council, insisting that all medical subjects shall be taken at a recognised medical school, would instantly condemn the course and would withdraw its recognition of our degree, with the. result that our graduates oonld not practice outside New Zealand, nor, go to England for postgraduate study an-i support themselves. The mistake would be the most fatal thing for the future of the dental profession in this country. . "H£iere_ is not the slightest lack of quantity of clinical material in .Dunedin. There is always much more than we . can possibly cope with. There was a lack (and exactly the same lack -would be present in Auckland) of the class of patients who could afford to pay for gold and metals for crown and bridge work. There is every reason to assume that Auckland dentists would adopt the same line of action as Dunedin dentists, and endeavour to restrict as much as possible the class of patients attending a dental school who could afford to pay at all. Thus, the only argument in favour of a transference of the school to Auckland falls to the ground absolutely. With the conclusions of the minority report by Mr. T. A. Hunter, I entirely agree." Answer to Criticism. In reply to the criticism by the committee of the Dental School, the Dean says:— " I resent strongly the remarks made by the committee for these reasons: (1) They are uncalled for by the order of reference; (2) the character of the committee was not suitable to report on such matters; (3) no examination on this score was made by the comraitee while sitting at. the Dental School nor were any questions asked me or the staff or students on the matter. The report, says ' Conclusive evidence was placed before the committee to show that graduates "have not received and the students are not receiving sufficient training in cither operative or mechanical dentistry.' No evidence was taken on this point at the school or from me. Some such statement, may have been made by someone else, I do not know; but one would have thought that before supporting such a' statement the committee /would have wished to discuss such a point with the dean of the faculty. I admit that the time for the teaching of both subjects might with advantage be lengthened and that is the real object of the lengthening of the coarse by the British Medical Council, which has already been adopted by the Board of Studies in New Zealand.

Question o 1 Supervision. '* 1" resent the suggestion of lack of proper supervision. The present staff is excellently qualified L.D.S. (Eng.), two B.D.S. (N.Z.), and 'one L.D.S. (Edinburgh). I have not the slightest hesitation in affirming most positively that no other centre in New Zealand could provide a staff so well qualified, keen and enthusiastic.

" Mr. Rishworth says that I am to be blamed for admitting so many students. Mr. Rishworth should know that it is not. within thfe fiwicfciota of the dean of any faculty to limit the number of students entering his department of the university. With further regard to the adequacy of the training given bv the school. I have to say: (1) That all our graduates are in private practice or are engaged, as assistants and are doing excellently. The last, one to leave th* school went as an assistant, at. £650 per annum. The dentists of New Zealand do not pay such salaries for insufficiently trained men; (2) all our graduates every year can be placed as assistants before their final examination. There is a keen demand for them; (3) graduates of ours who have gone to America have stated that thev have had no difficulty in taking the D.D.8., Pennsylvania, there without additional study at all, and one was head of his year at Pennsylvania for two years." Reflection Upon University. The Dean adds: "To suggest that the graduates have nog received adequate training is a reflection upon the university and its examiners." The statement concludes "It has been a boon, therefore, that there is not a single valid reason for the suggestion contained in the majority addendum that . the school should be transferred to Auckland. There would be no more clinical material; no facilities for the medical portion of the course; no compensating advantages whatever. On the :>ther hand, there would be the loss of the recognition of our degree by the General Medical Council and we should lose the proud distinction that a New Zealand dental graduate can practise anywhere in the Empire."

OPPOSITION TO REMOVAL.

DENTAL BRANCH'S PROTEST.

{bx telegraph.press ASSOCIATION.] DUNEDIN, Monday.

At a meeting of the Otago branch of the New Zealand Dental Association fhis evening a resolution was unanimously carried, strongly opposing the removal of the dental school to Auckland. (