CA Dental Law & Ethics study plan
CA Dental Law & Ethics · Give each week a clear focus.
8 weeks · About 7 hours per week
Licensure, Registration, and Scope of Practice
Map the full licensure pathway (dental board requirements, examination routes, license renewal and CE obligations) into a sequential flow diagram
Differentiate the legal boundaries of RDA, RDAEF, and hygienist duties using the statutory duty-assignment categories
Identify the acts that constitute unlicensed practice and the corresponding administrative penalties
Explain supervision levels (direct, indirect, general, none) and match each to specific delegated procedures
List the grounds for license denial, suspension, and revocation and rank them by severity
Your checkpoint
A one-page delegation-and-supervision matrix covering 15 procedures with the correct supervision level, scored at 90% or better on a self-made 20-item recall quiz
Dentist-Patient Relationship and Informed Consent
Define the legal elements of informed consent and distinguish it from mere consent to treat
Compare the reasonable-patient and reasonable-clinician standards for disclosure of material risks
Draft a plain-language informed-consent script for a high-risk procedure that names risks, alternatives, and the consequence of declining
Identify when a surrogate decision-maker or minor-consent rule applies and who may legally consent
Describe lawful refusal, dismissal, and abandonment boundaries when a patient declines recommended care
Distinguish the dentist's right to decline a patient from unlawful discrimination or abandonment
Your checkpoint
Two complete written informed-consent scripts (one routine, one high-risk) plus a 10-item role-play self-check of the consent conversation
Patient Records, Confidentiality, and Health Information Privacy & Infection Control and Clinical Safety Requirements
Outline record-retention, custody, and transfer obligations, including what must be released on patient request
Identify the permitted and prohibited uses and disclosures of patient health information and the exceptions for public-health reporting
Apply the minimum-necessary principle to three realistic release-of-information scenarios
Sequence the standard sterilization and disinfection workflow from instrument transport through storage
List the required elements of an exposure-control plan, including sharps handling and post-exposure protocol
Identify the documentation and reporting duties that follow a bloodborne-pathogen exposure incident
Your checkpoint
A two-column checklist (records/privacy on one side, infection control on the other) of 25 compliance items, each marked with the governing rule and a pass/fail self-audit result
Prescribing, Controlled Substances, and Pain Management
Classify the controlled-substance schedules relevant to dental prescribing and give a dental example of each
State the prescription requirements, refill limits, and recordkeeping duties that apply to each schedule
Explain prescription-drug-monitoring-program checking obligations and the red flags that require a query
Distinguish legitimate therapeutic prescribing from drug-seeking behavior patterns and outline a documented response
Describe the legal and ethical duties when a patient requests a controlled substance outside the standard of care
Your checkpoint
A one-page prescribing quick-reference card (schedule, refills, monitoring, red flags) plus a written 8-step protocol for handling a suspicious controlled-substance request
Professional Conduct, Ethics, and Advertising
Distinguish permissible advertising from false, misleading, or deceptive claims using statutory examples
Identify prohibited solicitation, testimonial, and specialty-announcement practices
Define unprofessional conduct and give a concrete dental example of each prohibited category
Contrast the ethical duties of competence, patient autonomy, and honesty when they appear to conflict
Evaluate four sample advertisements against the statutory criteria and state the defect in each
Your checkpoint
A graded critique of four sample dental advertisements, each labelled compliant or non-compliant with a one-sentence statutory justification
Mandated Reporting, Abuse, and Neglect & Practice Management, Fee Splitting, and Referral Arrangements
Specify who must report suspected child, elder, and dependent-adult abuse or neglect, and within what timeframe
Distinguish the mandated reporter's duty from the investigator's role and identify the immunity and penalty provisions
Recognize the physical and behavioral indicators that trigger a reporting duty and list what to document versus what to omit
Define fee splitting and identify which compensation arrangements are prohibited versus permitted
Differentiate lawful referral arrangements from prohibited patient brokering and self-referral
Explain the rules on splitting a fee with a non-dentist and on charging for services not rendered
Your checkpoint
A single-page decision tree for abuse/neglect reporting (recognize to report to document) plus a 12-item compliant/non-compliant sort of referral and fee arrangements
Peer Review, Quality Assurance, and Disciplinary Process & Professional Conduct, Ethics, and Advertising
Sequence the disciplinary process from complaint intake through investigation, hearing, and appeal
Describe peer review and quality-assurance protections, including confidentiality of proceedings
Explain the grounds, standard of proof, and range of sanctions in the disciplinary process
Summarize the licensee's due-process rights and the duty to cooperate with an investigation
Re-evaluate the ethics and advertising rules from week 5 against the sanction categories now known
Your checkpoint
A written flowchart of the disciplinary process with each stage annotated by the licensee's rights, plus a 15-item self-quiz scored at 85% or better
Licensure, Registration, and Scope of Practice & Dentist-Patient Relationship and Informed Consent & Patient Records, Confidentiality, and Health Information Privacy & Infection Control and Clinical Safety Requirements & Prescribing, Controlled Substances, and Pain Management & Professional Conduct, Ethics, and Advertising & Mandated Reporting, Abuse, and Neglect & Practice Management, Fee Splitting, and Referral Arrangements & Peer Review, Quality Assurance, and Disciplinary Process
Consolidate all nine domains into a weighted review schedule that matches exam percentages
Re-drill the two lowest-scoring domains from prior weeks using targeted question sets
Practice full-length timed question blocks and review every missed item to its governing rule
Build a one-page final cheat sheet of triggers, timeframes, and numeric thresholds
Rehearse rule-recall under time pressure to confirm retention
Your checkpoint
Two full timed practice blocks completed with a written error log, and a final one-page trigger-and-threshold cheat sheet
Milestones
Week 2: Complete the week 1 licensure and scope matrix and the week 2 consent scripts with self-quiz scores of 90% or better each; confirm the two heaviest domains are done before week 3
Week 4: Records/privacy, infection control, and prescribing checklists complete; score 80% or better on a 30-item mixed quiz drawn from domains 1 through 5
Week 6: All nine domains have at least one written artifact; the abuse-reporting decision tree and referral sort are complete; 40-item mixed quiz at 80% or better
Week 8: Two full timed practice blocks with an error log; every missed item traced to a governing rule; final cheat sheet complete