When did everyone become a doctor?

[pollyglot]

Just that really.
Years ago, you were a doctor if:
a) you had medical degree
b) you had a Ph.D. Though strangely, many women were still called "Mrs".

Suddenly, dentists began to call themselves "doctor". As did vets. Then the practice (prescribing) nurse had "Dr. Joy Full" on her door, and now I see the physio is Dr. Payne-Legge.

I seem to remember that in Italy, lawyers are "dottore/dottoressa" (might be wrong), and anyone with a degree in Japan is entitled to be addressed as "sensei".
Yes yes, I know that "doctor" simply means "someone with learning" from the Latin.
Meanwhile, surgeons remain "Mr./Ms. McCUTcheon".

Will those attaining a 3rd in Media Studies soon be eligible to join the elite?

Yes, I do know that "not everyone is in the UK, right"?

If the OP is in another country, then we in the UK won't know the conventions about who is or isn't called 'Dr' in their country, will we?

In defence of dentists, they are Dental SURGEONS. I wouldn't want anyone other than a surgeon providing dental surgery on my mouth, (removing teeth etc). When I had my wisdom teeth out they were impacted and needed a GA fir the Dental Surgeon to access them.

I'm a nurse, and have never known nurse prescribers to be called doctors.

If you get a doctorate you're a doctor, you can't use the prefix otherwise. People are staying in academia longer or going back to it for professional development and it's actively encouraged now. If there are more of them that's a good thing, it means more research is being conducted.

Not a dentist or married to one. But they are dental surgeons and carry our actual surgery on a regular basis. I think that entitles them to the utmost respect, and possibly the title 'doctor'. Although in my experience they (like vets) are often cleverer!

Phew, I was wondering when my Doctorate in Astro Physics would ever become useful. Sarcasm obv.

In addition to that Veterinary SURGEONS are SURGEONS. They carry out surgery on animals. I would expect them to be called doctors.

The only exception is of course tree surgeons😅

Not in the UK, @Boomboom22. You start your medical training on day 1 at university with clinical placements while you study for your degree in medicine. Some universities have a compulsory or optional extra year where medical students take a BSc too. An undergraduate degree in medicine takes 5-6 years. Once you have graduated, you can use the title Dr.

There is then 2 years foundation training on the job where you move around different specialties before you start training in a specialism eg cardiology, GP etc.

In some countries, like the US, you do an undergraduate degree before going to med school.

Dentistry and veterinary degrees have a similar structure and length as medicine in the UK.

To answer OP’s question, dentists and vets are allowed to use the honorary title Dr in the UK now in line with practice in other countries.

Anyone else using the title Dr would have to have a PhD. If a nurse has the title Dr it means that they have a PhD.

However, medical doctor is a protected title so HCPs need to ensure that they are not using the title in a way that implies they are a medical doctor eg there was a case where a dentist offering Botox and other cosmetic procedures was told not to use the title in advertising by the General Dental Council as clients could be misled and assume he was a medical doctor.

I’m a UK qualified dentist and none of my colleagues call themselves Dr unless they trained abroad in countries where it’s the norm.

Being a dentist people assume you’re an evil arsehole on sight so we generally try not to give anyone any reasons to judge us further.

Surely then the 6yr undergrad is at a higher level than most degrees and so warrants level 7 accreditation as md?

No it's not. 🙄

There are a lot of posters on mn with extremely limited reading comprehension. For some they are not really able to follow and make connections themselves.
It explains a lot of replies on a lot of threads. Sometimes they don't even get the thrust of the argument or misunderstand and accuse the op of saying things they never did.

I am so amused that someone thought her name was really joy full 🤣🤣🤣.

i did however once see a Dr hand about a finger injury

I know several nurses with PHD's it gets very confusing!

My dentist we went to when I was a child (back in the 80s) was Dr, not Mr. I didn’t realise it was a new thing. I think every dentist I’ve gone to has been “Dr” not “Mr/Mrs”. Perhaps not using the Dr title was a regional thing?

not sure whether you are in the uk. dentists are different to surgeons. max fax surgeons do a dual qualification of medicine and dentistry and then specialise in max fax surgery) - its a very tough speciality. they do the surgeries of tumours in the mouth etc.

dentists are not surgeons. surgeons have to study medicine, then undergo accredited surgical training (5-7 years depending on speciality) and finally take the surgical exams before they are known as surgeons.

Yes it is

exactly. I have not met any dentists who call themselves doctor (and i have worked in the regional dental hospital in our area) . why should they? they are a profession in their own right.

@therealcookiemonster exactly! We have no need to pretend we are anything other than we are!

I think it’s just an increase in the number of people with PhDs and people trained in other countries rather than a devaluing of the title ‘Dr’

Never seen a vet do that unless in USA. I'm am ex vet nurse.

Physios who do the postgraduate course qualify as MSc so we aren’t all necessarily BSc at qualification.

The physio you are referring to will have a physio related PhD. Perfectly entitled to use Dr although many of us don’t use it day to day in order to avoid confusion. We usually stick to using Dr for academic aspects of our work.

I never thought about it but just checked and my dentist uses Dr (I'm in the U.K.)
I've known him 26 years so I just use his first name

Nurses with PHDs or professional doctorates can use the title Doctor.

Yes, @Boomboom22, a first degree in medicine (or dentistry or veterinary science) is considered to be level 7, the equivalent of a masters. Medical doctors, dentists, and vets are permitted to use the honorary title of Dr after completing their first degree in the UK.

Just to confuse things further, medical first degrees in the UK don’t use the abbreviation MD. They are MBBS, BMBS or MBChB 😂 It stands for Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (in English or Latin). I believe there are some UK universities that use MD for a PhD in medicine. So if your Dr in the UK has the letters MD after their name, they have a PhD, unless they trained in another country.

I used to belong to a practice as a teen where two of the dentists had PhDs and one didn't. They were called "Dr" but their colleague wasn't.

Yeah school kids are nosey we wanted to find out why they were called "Dr" and why highly educated people working in our crap area. They were nice people. (Like my GP who explained why he ended up in my area of London. )

Years later at my current practice one of the partners also had a PhD and called himself "Dr". Once he retired and the practice was sold then all the dentists at the practice are called "Dr". Most are now European nationals.

I thought the reason medics had Dr as a courtesy title was because in Medieval Europe, a medical degree was by default a doctoral (i.e. research) degree and a licence to teach in the university. Now it’s not but they can still use the title as a courtesy.

I’ve never understood why we don’t just call medical doctors medics or surgeons, and it’s a protected title based on you having an MBBS/equivalent or the MRCS respectively and keep Dr for PhDs to be honest. Especially with the new doctor apprentices and PAs nonsense.