Is using proper titles in social situations pretentious?

[glatt]

In today's paper, there was a fluff column about doctors who insist on using their proper title even in social situations.

I'm friends with a doctor, and I call her by her first name in social situations. When I'm visiting a doctor, I probably call them Dr. So And So, but usually I don't address them by name because they are the only other one in the room, and if I'm talking, it must be to them.

In this column, they had this amusing bit:

“A physician is always addressed as Dr. so-and-so,” wrote Margaret S. Choa, MD. “It’s the proper title. Always. In any situation: business or social situations.”

Dr. Choa said that she was raised in the Chinese culture, a culture based on respect, where even siblings are identified by their respective places in the hierarchy. Wrote Dr. Choa: “Americans as a general rule do not respect titles because everyone is supposed to be equal. Ha! Inferior people are the only ones who want to be equal to superior ones.”

So my question is, should doctors be addressed with their proper title in social situations? Have they earned that courtesy after going through the long and difficult process of becoming a doctor? Or do we all put our pants on one leg at a time, and they should just be called Mr. or Mrs. So And So?