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Features Section |
Following my editorial concerning specialist training [Volume 29(2), 2002, p. 81), we have received several letters. I have decided to print them with no response from myself as they are all fairly self-explanatory.
Kevin O’Brien, Editor
Dear Sir,
I note your editorial comments in the June edition of the Journal regarding Orthodontic speciality training in the UK. In it you bemoan the shortage of fully trained specialists, training places and, horror of horrors, the inclusion of ‘unqualified’ orthodontists in the specialist register.
It may surprise you to learn that, as an ‘unqualified’ orthodontist, I concur with many of your sentiments. Yes, the DoH is foolish not to increase the number of training places; yes, there should be a far greater number of part-time courses available; yes, there is already a shortage, and yes, it can only get worse. Where I take issue is your implication that anyone without a ‘specialist’ qualification is unqualified to carry on the practice of orthodontics.
It would be arrogant and foolish of me to state that those of us who practice orthodontics either full or part-time are in some way as qualified as, say, an M.Orth., but it is certainly worth noting that many of us have been successfully practicing orthodontics long-term in hospitals as clinical assistants as well as in our own practices.
In my own case, it was a 10-year spell at a hospital alongside the registrar and I applied to the Faculty only at the repeated prompting of the Consultant in the department. I was not successful. At present, I devote at least half of my time to Orthodontics and 16 different full-time GDPs refer all or most of their orthodontic cases to me. All of them have said that they would be lost without the service that I provide.
I for one would love to see a viable part-time specialist course that I could take while carrying on with my practice and have been asking questions about this for over a decade, but met with a stonewall at every turn.
Is it not bizarre that one can go to the Continent to gain a ‘specialist’ qualification in a relatively short space of time and return to the Specialist Register in the UK? Try to gain a similar qualification here and every obstacle possible is strewn in your path.
About 5 years ago I had a conversation with an eminent Consultant who said, ‘Why shouldn’t a GDP carry on practising orthodontics when often their results are as good, and often better than people holding a specialist qualification.’ Who was it? None other than David Dibiase.
The statement that I subscribe to most strongly in your article is the last, hopefully ironic note: ‘Only in the UK ...’
Related articles in J. Orthod.:
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