[Dentistry and society].

In an editorial in the British Dental Journal (2007) E.J. Kay raised the question whether dentist-general practitioners have to be educated in dental schools affiliated with (academic) hospitals. Her hypothesis is that some 95% of graduating dentists enter in general practice and that the educational environment therefore should be there as well. In the present reaction it is argued that this is a bad idea because the complete separation of dental education from the academic medical environment would mean a drastic and undesirable limitation and impoverishment of the curriculum. At the same time it is not denied that outreach programmes in a dental school curriculum can be very meaningful.