CO129-411 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [5-7] — Page 371

366

Report

on An Ordinance entitled An Ordinance to

provide for the registration of qualified

Dental Surgeons and otherwise to regulate

the practice of Dentistry.

1/- Until the passing of this Ordinance the profession of Dentistry in this Colony was entirely unregulated by Statute law and the practice of dentistry by unqualified persons

uve

and the pe by such persons of isleading descriptions

were abuses which had long been recognised.

An attempt

made in 1905 to introduce legislation on the subject was not successful and the hill was dropped,

Apparently the rock on which that bill was silipwrecked was the difficulty of knowing how to deal with the large body of unqualified Chinese dentists, of varying pretentions and degrees of skill, ranging. from itenerant tooth extractors to practitioners who had gained their experience as attendants to qualified European dentists and who opened consulting rooms in the European parts of the town, adopted the title of doctor, and numbered Europeans amongst their clients.

C

While it

was clearly undesirable that unqualified persons should hold

themselves out as having European qualifications, it was recognised that the great mass of the Chinese population could not afford to pay the fees charged by qualified prac- titioners, the numbers of whom have heretofore been very small in the Colony, and the discussion on the former bill failed to result in a solution of the problem of how and where to draw the line. The question then dropped was revived last year by an Action in the Summary Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court which aroused considerable public interest.

awared substantial

The Taintiff, who was awar

damages, was a European lady who was induced to employ an unqualified Chinese dentist by his use of a European name

3)

and of the title of doctor. This man had little or no know-

ledge of dentistry and his treatment of the plaintiff vas most

unskilful and resulted in causing in her necrosis of the jaw

bone.

1

The case aroused a public demand for legislation and

the present Ordinance is the result.

The main idea of the Ordinance is to prevent persons from

holding themselves out as having qualifications which they do

not possess. The object is unimpeachable and the only point

in which tile Ordinance may be thought open to criticism as a

whole is the manner in which it attempts to achieve that ob-

ject. It cannot be denied that the main operative provision

a

4

of the bill, i.e. Section 6(1), is drawn in such wide terms

that it makes illegal a good deal which there is no intention

of suppressing, for a mere offer by an unregistered Chinese

dentist to extract/tooth will apparently be a technical of-

fence. It was found impossible to avoid this blemish in the

Ordinance, but it is hoped that no difficulty or hardship will

arise in a.tual practise, and it is proposed to settle a form

of Chinese words which may be used by unqualified Chinese den-

tists on their signboards. An instance of the difficulties

which stood in the way of a more restricted form of the pro-

vision in question was the invitation to the public offered

by the exhibition of a show case of artificial teeth and plate:

exhibited outside a consulting room in the European part of

the town.

It was at one time proposed to exempt Chinese persons from the Ordinance, but,apart from the difficulty of defining "Chinese person", it was realised that this would defeat the whole object of the Ordinance except as regards unqualified dentiste who were not Chinese persons. It was then suggest-

Chinese dentists should apply only ed that the exemption of

to dental operation performed by them on other chinese per- sons, but this was also considered impracticable.