Stomatologist and Dentist: Do You Want to Know Who’s Who?
We bring you a post so that you get to know who the stomatologist and the dentist are within dental health, since you’ve surely read on many occasions the dentist referred to as a stomatologist, medical stomatologist or odontologist.
Both the stomatologist, and the medical stomatologist or medical odontologist, and the odontologist are the professional figures who can practise dentistry, that is, who can work as dentists in Spain. But then, what’s the difference between a stomatologist and an odontologist?
The difference between an odontologist and a stomatologist: Are a stomatologist and a dentist the same thing?
On many occasions patients ask what the difference is between odontology or stomatology, what odontostomatology is or the meaning of stomatologist.
The main difference between the two is that stomatologists studied the degree in Medicine and then did the speciality of Stomatology. A few years ago, to be dentists, doctors had to specialise through the specialisation in Stomatology. However, if one wants to practise as a dentist nowadays in Spain the only way to do it is by studying Odontology and therefore they’ll be an odontologist.
Stomatologists or medical stomatologists studied the degree in Medicine and then the speciality in Stomatology, while odontologists directly studied the Degree in Odontology that’s currently offered at public and private universities.
What is Stomatology? How is Stomatology defined?
Therefore, Stomatology is the speciality that doctors used to study in the past in order to be able to practise as dentists. Graduates in Medicine studied the speciality of stomatology for two years (medical specialist in stomatology) in order to be able to practise as a dentist, also being called a stomatologist doctor, medical dentist or stomatologist surgeon.
What is an odontologist and what do they do?
An odontologist will be someone who has studied the degree in Odontology, which is studied for 5 years, and afterwards will be able to practise as a dentist. But what is a dentist? Well, they’ll be the healthcare professional capable of carrying out a diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the diseases of the stomatognathic system, which includes, in addition to the teeth, the gums, the periodontal tissue, the upper jaw, the lower jaw and the temporomandibular joint.
Therefore, if we need to have a check-up of our teeth: Who do I have to go to: a dentist or a stomatologist? Well, both dentists (odontologists) and stomatologists will be able to carry out that function and therefore we’ll be able to go to both specialists. So, is stomatology different from odontology? We can say that nowadays odontology and stomatology are synonymous and therefore both specialities are valid for being able to practise as a dentist in our country.
