The difference only comes into play during rotations. We send a few students to Des Moines University, which has DO, Podiatry, PT, OT, etc. The DO and Podiatry students are in the same classes the first two years, and then separate for some of the clinicals and rotations. I took a group of students for a visit, and met a really interesting podiatry student. She did her undergrad at Rice and got into diabetes research there, and decided that podiatry would be her best route to continue the work that she had started.

they DO have their own schools!

The Podiatrist says, "I have a little cream for that."

What does a Podiatrist drive?

A TOE truck.

There is no reason other then tradition.

It would seem to me that dentistry is definitely not separate just because of "tradition". Hell, there are numerous specialties just within dentistry.

With podiatry, sure, makes sense.

I ask you what makes a dentist’s goals different from physicians, heck the first two years of medical school and dental school are so similar that up until recently there were schools were dental and medical students went to the same classes their first two years. The only difference is that dentists stop their general medical schooling after those two years and start specializing.

They do this for historical reasons only, if someone was setting up formal schooling for dentists today as a new field they would be MD/DO. After schooling dentistry would be another speciality for graduates to choose from and orthodontics/oral surgery etc would be fellowships. I don’t think having my dentists be a little more knowledgeable about medicine would be a bad thing seeing as they use anesthesia and prescribe narcotics.

for medical school graduates.

As far as the 1st 2 years, sure as dentists we take mostly the same basic science curriculum as medical students. But we also get right to work on the basics of learning to be a dentist, I don't think we'd be as well trained if we delayed starting our dental training till after 2 years of a medical school type curriculum. Dentists need the full 4 years of dental school with it's emphasis on dentistry.

The public needs dentists who are well trained in being dentists and part of that is recognizing and dealing with various medical conditions. But I don't see the need for dentists to be MD's first then get advanced training in dentistry. Waste of time/money.

Also noting that in that first two years are courses in things like dental anatomy beyond the basic science curriculum. Plus labs. I studied sometimes with a friend in Med School while in first year. Both studying basic science then the friend would take off to retire for the evening...and I'd go to lab and work on that tedious crap for another 2-3 hours. Unless your parents were dentists, and even then not really, nobody inherently has the skill to wax up a lower second premolar, right out of the gate.

My residency was hospital based versus school based, so I do feel very strong with my understanding of total body health beyond the oral complex.

To note further down the thread, I think another difference in the analogy of podiatry and dentistry is that at least 95% of dentists are completing some sort of surgery on a routine daily schedule. I don't really know what percent of podiatrists incorporate surgery into their practice. I think dulac89 has a quality post below. I have no disrespect to the profession of podiatry, just noting some differences with the analogy linking it dentistry and medicine.

The last 2 years of medical school have minimal application in a general dental practice. For an OMFS it has a lot of relevance. And for Dentists that want to treat sicker patients there are programs available to get additional training

"I had to drive my mother to the chiropodist."

"Like the Irish chiropodist once said, 'Your fate is in my hands'."

A podiatrist is trained in medical and surgical management of the feet and lower leg.

An orthopedic foot and ankle specialist (an MD/DO) was trained as a general MD then as a general orthopedist, with a fellowship in foot and ankle. Certainly a much more comprehensive training.

Most orthopedic foot and ankle doctors have some ability to practice general orthopedics. As an example, our foot and ankle specialist takes general ortho call, and can manage many other routine/simple orthopedic problems.

Podiatry school is easier to get into. Some students go into podiatry because they couldn't get into med school. Some know right away what they want to do, and rather than spend 4 years of med school, 5 years of residency, and 1-2 years of fellowship, go straight to podiatry school cutting out years of training.

I have no problem referring patients with foot problems to podiatrists. For complicated foot and ankle surgical issues, as a generality, an orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon is going to be a better option, but there are certainly outstanding podiatrists out there too that I would completely trust with my own foot and ankle. I guess the best way to describe it is at the top levels, podiatry and ortho foot/ankle are equivalent for foot/ankle problems, but the quality floor is lower with podiatrists.

Not sure if this belongs on the Political Board or not, although it would seem to be best to start with this thread here.

That's where everyone else goes when they stick something up their ass and it gets stuck.

I'll see your bad pun and raise you an even worse one.