“Dentists Aren’t Doctors”? — We’ve Heard the Joke Before. It’s Not Funny Anymore.
A viral video, a casual interview.
A dermatologist and a popular Telugu influencer sitting across from each other, laughing as they said, “Dentists shouldn’t be called doctors.” The audience chuckled. The clip went viral. And just like that, decades of work from an entire profession were reduced to a careless comment made for laughs.
I didn’t feel angry, not immediately. I felt… tired.
This isn’t new. We’ve heard this line a hundred times before—A throwaway joke that lands a little too well because it’s built on an old, familiar stereotype.
This time it came from a dermatologist—a medical colleague. That’s what made it sting a little more. Someone who should know better. Who does know better.
Let’s be clear:
- ▶️ Dentistry does NOT need defending.
- ▶️ We’re not here to prove we’re “real doctors.”
- ▶️ We don’t need to explain how complex the head and neck region is, or how oral health reflects systemic health.
- ▶️ We don’t need to list how many lives we’ve saved by catching a lesion early or recognizing signs of diabetes before anyone else did.
That’s not the point.
The point is this:
- ▶️ We’re professionals who’ve trained for years.
- ▶️ We diagnose, we treat, we rehabilitate.
- ▶️ We deal with pain, trauma, esthetics, fear, and healing—every single day.
- ▶️ We work in demanding millimeters and microns.
And yet, this one-liner—“Dentists aren’t doctors”—keeps surfacing. Like a weed that never dies.
What’s more frustrating is the “apology” that followed. A clipped message on social media: “We didn’t mean to offend. It was just a joke.”
But when the joke consistently comes at someone else’s expense, it stops being funny. Especially when it’s rooted in years of professional hierarchy and cultural condescension.
This isn’t about being overly sensitive. It’s about being tired of the casual disrespect.
Of the way we’re overlooked in healthcare conversations until someone needs us—urgently, painfully, desperately.
To be honest, I don’t need the influencer to understand what we do. But I hoped the dermatologist would. Because she’s part of this larger ecosystem of healing. And healing, I’ve learned, begins with respect.
We’re not angry.
We’re not insecure.
We’re certainly not asking for validation.
We just don’t find the joke funny anymore.
So go ahead—keep laughing.
We’ll keep doing what we do.
Quietly. Precisely. Relentlessly.
Doctor or not, your life is a little better because we showed up.
And we always will.