Why the Royal Canadian Dental Corps is Exclusively Army?

[Calvillo]

All members of the Royal Canadian Dental Corps (RCDC) today are wearing Army DEU, officers and NCMs. Why? The nature of RCDC is purple, cross-elements, just like the Medical Branch. Looking at history, the RCN and RCAF had their dental services pre-unification. Post-unification, when purple trades were allowed to wear different DEUs, RCDC remained Army-only.

 

[Blackadder1916]

All members of the Royal Canadian Dental Corps (RCDC) today are wearing Army DEU, officers and NCMs. Why? The nature of RCDC is purple, cross-elements, just like the Medical Branch. Looking at history, the RCN and RCAF had their dental services pre-unification. Post-unification, when purple trades were allowed to wear different DEUs, RCDC remained Army-only.

No, they didn't.

Information archivée dans le Web | Information Archived on the Web

publications.gc.ca

. . . During World War II, the CDC deployed dental services throughout Canada to support the recruiting effort and demobilization, to the United Kingdom to support the Royal Canadian Air Force and army training camps, to North Africa, Sicily and Italy, in support of the Normandy invasion, and finally throughout north-west Europe.

I will, however, concede that there were a couple of dental personnel who wore an air force uniform.

Dental Hygienists
Dental hygienists were introduced into the Corps In 1956. The first two hygienists employed were female Royal Canadian Air Force members who had received dental hygiene training in England. One of these, Flight Sergeant Pat Savage, later became the first peacetime female Warrant Officer in the RCAF. Another dental hygienist, June Patterson, later became the first female in the Canadian Forces to hold the rank of Chief Warrant Officer, the highest non-commissioned rank. The first class of dental hygienists was trained at the RCDC School in 1956. The military trade was called ‘dental technician clinical’, as civilian hygienists were trained in universities and held a Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH) diploma and the RCDC tradespersons could not meet these requirements. Despite the nomenclature, military hygienists had skills equal to or greater than their civilian counterparts and many successfully entered civilian practice later in life.

Information archivée dans le Web | Information Archived on the Web

publications.gc.ca

. . . The word 'Army’ was removed from the name in recognition of the tri-service role of the Dental Corps.

 

[dapaterson]

Because tradition.