Inter-professional conflict and professionalization: dentistry and dental hygiene in Ontario.

In Ontario, Canada, an inter-professional struggle is occurring between the professions of dentistry and dental hygiene over who should be the primary oral health care provider for the public; that is, when someone seeks dental treatment, who should they see first? This conflict has been spurred by recent changes in the regulation of health care professions, changing markets for professional services, and the professional projects pursued by dental hygiene and dentistry. An examination of the history and dimensions of dentistry-dental hygiene relations, reveals the extent to which professionalization both provokes and is shaped by inter-professional conflict.