Garry Pearson: The Association waxed and waned on various issues, depending on who was in office. On some issues and at a certain point, they would have been oppositional, at other times supportive.

I was a bit surprised when Henry [Atkinson] mentioned the opposition of the ADA to the use of the so-called New Zealand school dental nurses. Whilst I know there was a lot of tension around boundaries and supervision with these operative auxiliaries, I had understood that the caries epidemic was so severe that the ADA supported the introduction of School Dental Therapists, as they were known. But of course, coming in 1991, I gained my understanding from filtered information I received from certain people who may only remember selectively. So your view, I’m sure, would have been accurate at a certain point in time.

Perhaps we’ve all got to consider how history is re-created and re-written as we’ll all be doing when we look at the transcript. (laughter)

John Harcourt: At one stage during the 1970s, I think it was suggested in the Ministerial Review, that a second Dental School be started at Monash.

Henry Atkinson; If things didn’t improve.

John Harcourt: Yes, if things didn’t improve. There was a big meeting held in the auditorium of the Royal Dental Hospital, as it was then, to discuss dental auxiliaries and in which two words were inserted into a motion at the last moment which completely changed the meaning of the motion. It was something like, “Until such and such happens, we wouldn’t support the introduction of operating auxiliaries”. The person who devised that, Doug Loader,[93] passed away late last year.

Henry Atkinson: It goes back long before that. In the 1930s, the Victorian Branch of the Australian Dental Association organised opposition to it [recognition of dental auxiliaries].

Peter Reade: With regard to the quota for the Dental School, various studies of population growth showed widely different results. One study showed it wouldn’t be too long before there was a need for more dentists, while another predicted a need for fewer dentists. It was very difficult to get to grips with what the real situation was.

John Harcourt: Also, predictions of how the Australian population would grow were way out. It was thought the population would grow much faster [than it did].

The prediction of population growth was part of the push to generate another Dental School at Monash. That didn’t occur because they [the Health Department] did the figures again,[94] plus it was a question of money.

Garry Pearson: However, we have another Dental School at La Trobe University, as of this year, which is offering a Bachelor of Oral Health Science or Oral Health Therapy. It has a rural focus, competing with the Shepparton focus that the Melbourne Dental School is setting up.

There is a difference in the way that the La Trobe degree was established so it will produce dual qualified practitioners. As John described before, it was similar to the old graduate diploma that split into one of two registrations, either as a dental therapist or a hygienist. But I think that’s now modified so that Melbourne, too, will also produce dual registerable practitioners.

Mike Morgan: Yes, that’s correct

Sandra Turner: It was actually Melbourne’s original preference to have Bachelor of Oral Health graduates dually-qualified. There were pressures from others, however, for that not to happen.

Garry Pearson: Certainly the ADA opposed that and continues to hold concerns.

Peter Reade: Could I ask what a dual registerable therapist means?

Mike Morgan: It means you can become both a dental therapist or a dental hygienist. BREAK

Ann Westmore: We’ve talked about the research activities of the School, mainly in the 1960s. What directions did it take from that time?

John Harcourt: My own situation is that I worked at the Northwestern University Dental School in Chicago for two years [1969-71] which was probably the most productive research period of my life. I was lucky enough to work with an individual who liked writing papers while I liked doing the lab work. So we got on very well together.

We also started writing a text book, which was easy, so the Head of Department said. ‘Look, we’ve got 16 chapters, all you have to do is fill in under these headings’, which we eventually did.[95]

Witness to the History of Australian Medicine