Science or Surgery- an unnecessary debate!

I recently encountered a raging controversy on the semantics of a dentist's degree. Simply put, the question was whether a 'master of science' degree should be considered inferior to a 'master of dental surgery'. To explain the background, one must understand that in the USA, a master of science is designated with the acronym MS, whereas in India ( and all commonwealth countries) the same is designated as MSc. For the record I might add that MS in India generally refers to Master of Surgery and by logic the MDS is called a Master of Dental Surgery. The case in question refers to a gentleman with  MS in Orthodontics ( as it is referred to in the USA) is today being challenged by one of his colleagues because he has a 'science' degree and not a 'surgery' degree and therefore ineligible to call himself an Orthodontist. Orthodontics, strictly speaking, is not a surgical persuasion. It is an important specialty that deals with non surgical correction of dental and facial deformities. The surgical corrections are done by another specialty. Notwithstanding any of these, in India they are all designated as Master of Dental Surgery. For instance Oral Medicine, Preventive Dentistry and Oral pathology (which are all obviously non surgical specialties) are also designated as MDS. It is just a nomenclature to which we have not appended much thought. It certainly does not matter too! All specialties are important.
To me, the whole controversy about the expansion of a degree ( MS or Msc) appears  puerile and immature because the course content and structure of the syllabus are exactly the same and the regulatory body in India (DCI) has clearly recognized the MS from the particular US University as being equivalent to the MDS. So you can see that the bone of contention is in the expansion of the acronym after the dentist's name!
Science is perhaps the greatest persuasion in human endeavor and surgery is just a part of this great ocean of collective knowledge. Then why do we consider science to be somehow inferior to surgery. It is unfortunately an uninformed world view that makes people clamor after a title that incorporates the word 'surgeon', not realizing how limiting that term can be. I am a Maxillofacial surgeon (a surgical specialty of dentistry) but I would feel more pampered to be called a scientist rather than a surgeon. This is because it would be an acknowledgement that my professional abilities extend beyond the realm of purely using a knife to cure people. In fact until the last century, surgeons were looked down upon because they achieved much less in health care than the other health professionals. In fact even today the surgeons in the UK are called 'Mr' and not 'Dr'. Have you ever wondered why the AIIMS is called the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Does the word ‘science’ seem inferior for this institute? The same applies to NIMHANS and several other national institutes of higher medical training.
Surgery is just a small aspect of the higher calling of science which encompasses a greater understanding and application of knowledge. We must remember that to become a surgeon, one must first embrace science. Surgery is just minuscule arm of the broader subject of science.