Thanks to Sharon Melanson for posting on DentPubHealthListServe, May 8, 2010, the references to three provocative articles (listed below) in the 2004 Journal of the Canadian Dental Association by Jos Welie: Is Dentistry a Profession?

Excerpts:
      “…the dental profession can be defined as the collective of oral health care experts who have jointly and publicly committed to altruistically provide their expertise in the service of all patients with important oral health needs and are in turn trusted by the public to do so.”
      “By definition, dentistry does not qualify as a profession when and to the extent that the interventions performed are purely elective instead of medically indicated. It therefore behooves dentists who focus their practices on esthetic interventions to clearly state that they are not professionals. Doing so does not mean they are incompetent, dishonest or otherwise immoral. It simply means that the ethical structure of their practices differs from that of professional dentists.” [emphasis added]

Click on the following links to access the articles:
Part 1: http://www.cda-adc.ca/jcda/vol-70/issue-8/529.pdf  
            Professionalism Defined
Part 2: http://www.cda-adc.ca/jcda/vol-70/issue-9/599.pdf  
            The Hallmarks of Professionalism
Part 3: http://www.cda-adc.ca/jcda/vol-70/issue-10/675.pdf
            Future Challenges