[mankyd]

I did a bit more digging and think I might have gotten the story a tiny bit muddled, but maybe not?

Most the articles I find talk about the barber vs doctor distinction, but they also all bring up a story about a proposal to add dentistry to the University of Maryland's medical school.

Evidently this proposal was put before the state legislature, was rejected, and thus was born the Baltimore College of Dentistry. From their own website:

> With the founding of the college, dentistry became a profession separate from medicine. Dentistry could have become a medical specialty if the Maryland legislature had approved a request to incorporate it as a department at the University of Maryland’s medical school, but the request was rejected owing to cost. Dentistry then set its own course.

https://www.mchoralhealth.org/milestones/1840.html

From what I can see, people seem to point to this story as a historical waypoint for the division of the two in the US.

[MBCook]

Interesting. Thanks for following up.

Very weird to think it was a decision by a legislature that set that path going forward.

I guess I had just assumed it was some kind of professional medical association that decided it.