History Main / OpenHeartDentistry

* ''Series/QuantumLeap'': When Sam leaps into a man helping a woman kidnap a baby (to return it to its rightful mother) he realizes that the baby has asthma. They're on the run and can't go back so they find a vet to bring the baby to.

* ''Series/HometownChaChaCha'': Hye-jin (a dentist) delivers Yun-gyeong's baby in her home after the roads to the hospital are blocked due to the typhoon, armed with nothing but her rudimentary knowledge from school and some advice on home births from the neighborhood grandmothers. She's successful.

* More or less the entire point of the Don Knotts vehicle ''TheShakiestGunInTheWest''.

* One episode of ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' has Mike go to a vet for treatment to avoid the sort of questions that tend to arise when someone shows up at a hospital with a bullet wound (plus they have to report them).

* Parodied in the second instalment of the ''Fanfic/SupperSmashBrosMishonhFromGod'' trilogy, where ''VideoGame/DrMario'' is shown helping [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles Fiora]] give birth in his operating theatre. While Dr. Mario’s qualifications aren’t touched upon in his home games, his usage of pills implies him to be a chemist. Notable for being a case with three different types of doctors being ([[StylisticSuck intentionally]]) mixed up in one fell swoop.

* Justified in ''Series/TeenWolf'': the Vet is secretly the doctor to all the supernatural creatures (mostly were-creatures) in Beacon Hills. He'll treat more human injuries in a pinch, but the characters go to him for anything more supernaturally based.

To a ''very'' limited extent this is justified, as medical doctors in different specialties do all go through basic medical training[[note]]You can't expect an ophthalmologist to conduct a heart or liver transplant, but they can be realistically expected to diagnose a heart or epilepsy attack, provide competent first aid, stitch up a wound, assist in a childbirth[[/note]], and some of the skills of one discipline cross over. A bit.[[note]]For example, sewing up a wound is much the same for most mammals, but organs and blood vessels can be very different, so the more one has to muck about, the more a specialist is needed.[[/note]] Oftentimes a subtrope of ClosestThingWeGot, if the dentist's employed in an emergency. Compare BackAlleyDoctor, who may or may not be a licensed practitioner of medicine, but could still save your life if worst comes to worst. Compare/contrast with SuperDoc when you can actually find a genuine doctor who is more like medicine's answer to the OmnidisciplinaryScientist. See also SurgeonsCanDoAutopsiesIfTheyWant.

* Averted in an episode of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' when Lois is giving birth at home (not on purpose, the paramedics were late) and everyone expects the doctor neighbor to deal with it. He protests that he knows nothing about obstetrics -- he is a dentist and, in fact, became a dentist because most aspects of the human body {{Squick}} him out.

* In the ''{{Franchise/Firefly}}'' fic ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/8043687/1/shut-our-exhausted-eyes Shut Our Exhausted Eyes]]'' Simon has to do a root canal on Mal. Mal can’t exactly go to a dentist and though Simon is a surgeon rather than a dentist, he had read up on the procedure and since Mal was actually allowing the help without his usual grumbling, Simon knows it’s gotta be bad. The author throws in a handwave of future medical tech being better than today’s, and Simon being glad Serenity’s med bay is at least decently equipped, and he’s able to get it done without trouble.

* In the JimBelushi movie ''Film/{{K-9}}'', Belushi's character brings his partner, a police dog, into a human emergency room for treatment when the latter is shot.

* Not exactly this trope, but in ''Literature/BalzacAndTheLittleChineseSeamstress,'' the main characters are sent to a remote mountain during the Cultural Revolution because their parents are doctors and dentists. So when the nasty village headman has a rotten tooth...let's just say the boys have some fun with this...

* In ''Literature/TheDragonKnight'' series, James, a man from the late 20th Century, has had to use his limited 20th Century medical knowledge to help deal with 14th Century medical issues. Luckily, this tends to consist of fairly simple things like ''clean'' bandages, making sure that helpers ''wash'' their hands with soap, plus some general 20th century medical info, like antibotics and means of cleaning wounds, that he could easily use. Later, he's able to use his magic to assist in healing wounds and doing blood transfusions.

** In one of his books, Herriot recounted advising a farmer on handling his back problems, and that the farmer seemed to take the vet more seriously than the people doctor. On the other hand, Herriot's advice (for the farmer to stop doing the hand milking of his cows and let others do it) was actually a roundabout way to treat the actual patient, a number of cows showing symptoms of minor injuries from overly energetic hand milking (by the farmer with the back problem).

** This cut both ways. The bereaved owner of a recently dead pet - a caged bird, in fact - chose to ask Herriot, rather than the local vicar or priest, whether animals have souls and go to Heaven after death (he said his view was they'd all go to the same place). Contrast this to Father Neil da Souza's experience, elsewhere in this section.

* Subverted in ''Literature/TheStand'' when one of the merry bands of travelers tries to perform an emergency appendectomy and the patient dies. None of the folks in the group are dentists or vets, but one of the group [[NotThatKindOfDoctor holds a Ph.D. In anthropology.]]

* In ''Series/PrisonBreak'', the character T-bag (Theodore Bagwell), forces a veterinarian to reattach his hand at knifepoint, without anesthesia. It should probably be noted that it doesn't work. It just kind of sits there uselessly until he'd forced to remove it to escape a situation, and replaces it with a properly made prosthetic.

* Justified in ''Series/TeenWolf'' the Vet is secretly the doctor to all the supernatural creatures (Mostly were creatures) in Beacon Hills. He'll treat more human injuries in a pinch, but the characters go to him for anything more supernaturally based.

* In ''Series/TheUnusuals'' Delahoy coerces a medical examiner, despite her protests into doing tests on him for his tumor.

** This cut both ways. The bereaved owner of a recently dead pet - a caged bird, in fact - chose to ask Herriot, rather than the local vicar or priest, whether animals have souls and go to Heaven after death (he said his view was they'd all go to the same place). Contrast this to Father Neil da Souza's experience, elsewhere in this sectionw.

* ''Series/MysteryDiners'' is predicated on an investigation team running sting operations to root out fraud, bad behaviour and theft among restaurant employees. That is, until they took on a job in an allegedly haunted eating place.[[note]]S5/10 Mazi's Taverna, Seattle[[/note]] Inevitably, a TV show which investigates fraud and dishonesty among restaurant staff turned up more "hard evidence" for the building being haunted, than an entire series run of those haunted house shows shot in murky green light.[[note]] The caveat is that of course the viewer has to take it on trust that what they see hasn't been manipulated and edited to make a better story. As the disclaimer, which is on screen for all of fifteen seconds says, "certain events may have been re-enacted for dramatic purposes". [[/note]] They even have a far more plausible and telegenic spiritual medium on MD's own staff, which is convenient. It turned out that [[ScoobydooHoax employees were exploiting the fact their building is allegedly haunted]], in order to run unofficial and profitable after-hours ghost tours (and also to take advantage of their employer being superstitious and believing it. He's too terrified to investigate properly, which allows them even more scope for taking the piss.).

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[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{Lost}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lost_surgery.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:If you don't have a surgeon, a fertility specialist and a dentist will have to do]]
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->'''Dogen:''' What do you think's wrong with my brain, doctor?
->'''Dr. Loboto:''' How should I know? I'm a dentist! But here's what I do know: if the tooth is bad, we pull it!

[[folder:Comic Strps]]

* Justified on ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' after Carl is shot in a hunting accident and Hershel (a retired vet) was the person they knew to have medical experience that was still alive in the middle of a ZombieApocalypse. He even explains that there's no guarantee of success, but he'll do the best he can. He manages to save Carl once they've retrieved some medical equipment.

** Later the Boulder Free Zone's "doctor" points out that he's just a vet, and the town needs someone with real human medicine experience.

* In ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'', the Anti-Mobius version of Doctor Robotnik is Doctor Kintobor, a ''vet''. In a related matter, the Evil Alien Xorda also once said the Mobians are 90% identical to humans in their genealogy, although lord only knows how the internal anatomy of a Mobian is arranged...

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{Lost}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lost_surgery.png]]