The election of a woman, Alison Lockyer, to chair the General Dental Council seemed a good excuse for Apolline to celebrate the role of women in dentistry. After all the patron saint of dentists – and patients with toothache – is St Apollonia. She was martyred by the gruesome process of having her teeth removed first, or so it is said. She appears on the coat of arms of the British Dental Association wielding a pair of pliers.
Fifty years ago women were a rarity in the profession. Only a few were accepted into dental schools each year, whereas now more than half of those graduating are women. Then along came a certain Margaret Mitchell, now better known to us as Dame Margaret Seward. After qualification she discussed the possibility of applying for the resident house job at the London. She was told 'Forget it, the job is always given to a man.' Apparently the hospital consultants viewed the incumbent of the post as the perfect partner to accompany their daughters to hospital balls.
She did not take 'no' for an answer, applied and became the first woman to be appointed as the resident dental house officer at the London Hospital. The rest, as they say, is history. It was followed by many 'firsts' including the editorship of the British Dental Journal, presidency of the GDC, the first woman to be chief dental officer for England and the first dentist to be made a Dame.
Women at the top of the dental profession include the chair and interim chief executive of the GDC, the chair and deputy chair of the British Dental Association executive board, as well as senior positions in all spheres of dentistry. Fifty years ago such appointments of women were anathema to the closed male, middle-aged, white dental establishment.
The function of women, it was widely felt, was to provide wives for dentists. There were not only tax advantages to this arrangement, but it ensured that the male dentist was not tempted to form unsuitable liaisons with the prettier nurses. They were better at coping with female members of staff who wanted time off for 'women's problems'. Above all, they could look after the children of the practice. Those days were full of sexist stereotypes.
Another was a general assumption that women were unfit for the rough and tumble of general dental practice, let alone oral surgery. Their place was the community dental service. I well remember an unfortunate representative at an exhibition saying to one woman dentist: 'I suppose you work in the community service, so you don't buy any of these materials.' Bad mistake, not only was she a practice owner, but ran the place almost single handedly and very effectively. I sometimes see him at exhibitions and wonder if he has recovered from being torn off a strip.
Let us hope that the days of discrimination against women are over and not just because of the Equal Opportunities and Sexual Discrimination Acts. Because of their abilities and hard work, women are accepted at any level in the profession. Much of the credit of this goes to the organisation Women in Dentistry, formed in 1986. Twenty years later it was wound up, mission completed. Its chair, Penny Joseph, wrote: 'We are celebrating success and confident that Women in Dentistry has fulfilled its remit.'
Yet despite all this there is a something in me that says: 'But men and women are different'. The male model of leadership is barking out commands and expecting them to be obeyed. Women can do this, look at former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. But their strength lies in their networking and getting the best out of the team.
Compare the approach to reform of NHS dentistry. Margaret Seward gathered a wide group around her,⇐ ⇔from which came Options for change which was widely popular in the profession. She left and it was over to the men. They produced and imposed the widely unpopular 2006 contract. They did this by imposing their will on the profession and with little pretence at consultation let alone negotiation. Would a better contract have emerged if a more 'female' approach had been adopted?
The other aspect may be more far-reaching. You frequently hear men praised for the quality of their restorative work. This is how we judge them. How often do we hear a dentist praised for getting little Julie to use a toothbrush and stop consuming cariogenic products? Yet that bit of work will last patients for the rest of their lives, far longer than the greatest bit of restorative dentistry.
Who does this important preventive work? Yes it's the women in dentistry, whether dentists, hygienists, therapists or dental nurses. Perhaps it was always thus.
Open Wide Memoir of the Dental Dame by Margaret Seward was first published by The Memoir Club in 2009. Details and orders from 0191 3735660.