Dentists are divided along racial and nationality lines in the ongoing row over how to handle dental manpower needs, it is claimed.

Responding to complaints from members of the Bermuda Dental Association that the Dental Board is obstructing efforts to import dentists in the face of a manpower shortage, Vincent Bridgewater, a black Bermudian dentists, said that the issue was primarily racial and political.

"The problem is there is a shortage of white dentists," he said. "This thing has been going on for a long time and it's all about black and white."

He added that a number of young Bermudians were studying dentistry abroad and that "the white dentists don't want to have black dentists working with them".

And he questioned dentists who have a six month waiting list for appointments.

"I could see somebody next week if I want to," he said. "Anybody who tells you that they book for six months is BS-ing. How can they book for six months ? If you give a patient five appointments would you not be booked ? We give a patient two appointments, three at the max. That way if they cancel out I'm not really pushed."

The Dental Association has called for the resignation of Board chairman Richard Cann. But Dr. Bridgewater insists that the problem is a "matter of perception".

"The Dental Board is predominantly black and the Dental Association is predominantly white officers," he said.

"It's more political than anything else. You have a black Government and you have a black dental board."

And a number of dentists had come to the Island on work permits but now had carte blanche to stay here because they were married to Bermudians, he added.

"A guy comes in here with no strings attached, he ain't leaving. Quite a few guys who came here and are still here and now they are trying to control dentistry in Bermuda. Tell Fay to go back to Canada," he said.

The Royal Gazette could not assess whether other black dentists felt the same way as calls were not returned by press time last night and others contacted declined to comment for the record.

Asked whether the non Bermudian dentists were doing better than the locals and so felt a greater need to expand their practices, Dr. Bridgewater said that while he could quite easily increase his income by bringing in a foreign associate, he was prepared to wait a few years until his Bermudian godson, who is studying dentistry, qualifies and returns home.

"If they are working longer and their volume is greater then you are going to make more money. If I was to take somebody in my practice it would enhance income. I am not prepared to hire a foreign dentist, I will wait for a Bermudian to come home. I am prepared to wait three more years for my godson to come back."

Dr. Laidlaw Fraser Smith, president of the Association, said that the fact that the make up of the Dental Board was not representative of dentists in Bermuda could be a factor in its decisions.

The Board is "all black and all American-trained", he said. "It would be far better if we had people on that board which represented the cross section of dentists in Bermuda - black, male and female who are trained in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. I think their similar cultural backgrounds are causing them to reinforce each others' beliefs. I think in some sections of the community there's an anti-expatriate feeling."

A petition currently making the rounds calls on Bermuda's political leaders to take action to solve a shortage of dentists on the Island.

A survey is currently being carried out to establish whether there is indeed a shortage.