New profession by fiat: Italian dentistry and the European common market

Dentistry posed major problems for the European Common Market's efforts to harmonize national arrangements for entry to practice by migrating professionals. The separation of dentistry from medicine in the other 8 member-nations did not occur in Italy. The 1978 Dental Directives passed by the Common Market Council of Ministers included special provisions requiring Italy within 6 years to authorize a new dental role independent from medicine and to create appropriate specific training. The analysis of these events covers three elements. First, the efforts of medical-dentists in Italy to reach consensus or to block a possible internal move toward creation of a separate dental specialty are appraised. Second, the actions of the international liaison committee of national dental associations to seek to deal with the Italian problem through contacts with the Italian medical profession, with the sub-group of Italian medical-dentists, and with the international liaison committee of national medical associations are reviewed. Third, the actions undertaken by Common Market bodies are analysed. This unusual instance of an international governmental authority seeking to force changes in the structure of a profession by impelling action by the government of a sovereign nation highlights the need for further cross-national analysis of the relations between professions and political systems. Whether health professions are more susceptible to international harmonization than technical, scientific, financial or design professions remains an open question, until such research occurs.