In Ontario, “The Royal College of Dental Surgeons” has power to appoint a Board of Directors, who have authority to fix the curriculum of studies to be pursued by students, to determine the period during which they must be employed under a practitioner, to appoint the examiners, and arrange the examinations, for those who desire to obtain a license to practise dental surgery in the province. The Board may also confer the title of “Master of Dental Surgery” upon any licentiate who passes certain examinations and |162| conforms with certain regulations. The College is composed of all those entitled to practise in the Province; and no one who is not a member of the College can practise dentistry for hire, gain or hope of reward, or pretend to hold, or take, or use any name, title, addition or description, implying that he holds a license to practise, or that he is a member of the College, or shall falsely represent, or use any title representing that he is a graduate of any dental college, under a penalty of $20 and costs for every offence, to be recovered in a summary way before a magistrate, or in a Division Court by suit. Persons contravening the Act cannot recover for work done or materials provided. Of course, the Act does not interfere with legally qualified medical practitioners [434]. Dentists are subject to the same rules, as to negligence, as are physicians or surgeons [435], and if by a culpable want of attention and care, or by the absence of a competent degree of skill and knowledge, a D.D.S. causes injury to a patient, he is liable to a civil action for damages, unless, indeed, such injury be the immediate result of intervening negligence on the part of the patient himself, or unless such patient has by his own carelessness directly conduced to the injury [436]. The law is ever reasonable; so it only requires of a dentist a reasonable degree of care and skill in his professional operations, and will not hold him answerable for injuries arising from his want of the highest attainments in his profession. The rule is, that the least amount of skill with which a fair proportion of the practitioners of a given locality are endowed, is the criterion by which to judge of the professional man’s ability or skill [437]. As far as the liability is concerned, no distinction is made |163| between those who are regular practitioners and those who are not so; the latter are equally bound with the former to have and to employ competent skill and attention.