When writing formal letters, it helps to know how to address a group of people. This article will explore what you need to do to address multiple doctors in the same email or letter. It’s actually a lot easier than you might realize.
When referring to multiple doctors, you can use “Dr. and Dr.” or “Drs.” Neither version refers to the doctors being married as there is no marital status involved when using the “Dr.” title. If they share the same name, “Drs.” works best; if they don’t, “Dr. and “Dr.” works best.
You might see them used in the following situations:
In the last example, the assumption is that both doctors have “Taylor” as a last name. This is rare, but it can happen even for a non-married pair of doctors. That’s why we wanted to include it.
When two doctors are married, it will help to know what names they use before emailing them. If they both share the same name, “Drs.” works best. If they still have separate names, “Drs.” or “Dr. and Dr.” can work to establish this.
Again, there is no mention of marital status when using “Dr.” as a title. It simply states that someone has achieved a doctorate in something, and they are able to use the “Dr.” title.
You would be able to address married doctors in the following way if you know that they share the same name.
Technically, you could also say “Dear Dr. Smith and Dr. Smith” when they have the same name. However, this is not common practice, and it would be a strange way to introduce an email to two people with the same surname.
As mentioned above, “Drs.” and “Dr. and Dr.” are both suitable choices if you know that two married doctors have different last names. It’s increasingly more common these days for the wife not to take the husband’s name, so you might need to reference them separately.
If you know that the wife has not taken her husband’s name, but you still choose to use “Drs. Smith” as if they both have the same name, you might cause offense where you shouldn’t.
It’s best to be respectful of the doctors’ choices. That way, you won’t cause any offense.
Here are some examples of how you could address two married doctors with different last names:
As you can see, it’s much better to separate their two names in this way. It’s a much better sign of respect in a formal email, and it shows that you know who you are talking to before sending it.
“Dear Drs.” is correct. We use “Drs.” as the plural form of the title “Dr.” Adding an “s” to the end of the singular form is a great way to show the plural. This rule even applies when we are using short-form words or titles.
You can use “Drs.” as long as you are referring to multiple different doctors. It doesn’t have anything to do with marriage. Instead, it refers to multiple doctors that you know could help you with the contents of your email.
Also, the list of doctors you can refer to in this way is endless.
You could write to only two doctors like this:
Or multiple doctors, like this:
Of course, this example is a little over the top, but you get the idea. If you’re referring to that many people informally, you might be better off using a collective group introduction like “hey guys” or “dear all.”
“Dear Drs.” does not imply marriage. There is no reason to suspect that marriage is present when using the plural of “Dr.” Instead, it just means that two or more doctors are being emailed at the same time. Marriage only applies to the titles “Mr.” and “Mrs.”
“Dear Dr. and Dr.” is another correct form that works well in formal emails. This works better when there’s a clear difference in the doctors’ names or when you know that they are married but have different names that it would be respectful to make a note of.
Let’s imagine that you go to a doctor’s office that has two doctors on-call at all times. You might want to refer to both of them in an email to ask them a question.
It would be reasonable to use “Dr. and Dr.” with their name after each title (you can pick which way around you write it). It would look like this:
You can choose the ordering of the names.
If you don’t know a doctor’s name, you have two main options. First, you can just use “Dr.” If you know they have the doctor title, you can use “Dr.” as their introduction. Secondly, you could use “to whom it may concern,” “sir,” or “ma’am,” depending on what you know.
If you know nothing about the doctor, you could use this:
If you know their gender, you might find that you have more luck with the following:
If you know that they are a doctor, but you simply don’t know their first or last name, then the following is perfectly fine:
It’s a matter of personal preference above all else.
You don’t just have to refer to a doctor’s title in an email. The following ways also work:
Martin holds a Master’s degree in Finance and International Business. He has six years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives, and colleagues. Furthermore, he has teaching experience from Aarhus University. Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. Read more about Martin here.
