Colorado Dental Practice Act and Laws (including SB25-194)
Where the Act lives
The Colorado Dental Practice Act is Article 220 of Title 12 of the Colorado Revised Statutes (C.R.S. 12-220-101 et seq.). It creates the Colorado Dental Board within DORA's Division of Professions and Occupations, defines the practice of dentistry and dental hygiene, sets the grounds and procedures for discipline, and authorizes the Board to adopt rules. The Act carries a sunset (repeal) date and is reauthorized periodically by the legislature. SB25-194 (2025) is the sunset bill that continued the Board and amended several scope, supervision, and delegation provisions. Where SB25-194 changed a section, the amended language controls, so answer against the current text rather than a pre-2025 summary.
Scope, supervision and delegation
- "Practice of dentistry" covers diagnosis, treatment planning, surgery, prescribing, and taking or interpreting radiographs.
- A dentist may delegate a task only when (a) the task is within the dentist's own scope, (b) the delegatee is trained and authorized under the Act and Board rules, and (c) the required level of supervision - direct, indirect, or general, as defined in statute and rule - is present.
- The delegating dentist keeps professional responsibility for the patient; the delegatee is separately accountable for staying inside his or her own scope.
Discipline
The Board may act on unprofessional conduct, gross or repeated negligence, fraud, practicing beyond scope, practicing while impaired, aiding unlicensed practice, and failing continuing-education or recordkeeping duties. Sanctions run from a letter of concern or admonition through public censure, probation with conditions, suspension, revocation, and fines, plus practice restrictions or remedial education.
Worked example
A certified hygienist administers local anesthesia while the dentist is treating a patient two operatories away. Start with the statute: hygienist scope plus the rule authorizing local anesthesia only for hygienists holding the required certification and only at the supervision level the rule specifies. If the rule requires the dentist on the premises, the hygienist is compliant; if it requires the dentist in the operatory, she is outside scope. Reason from the supervision definition, not from what feels safe.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating a Board policy as a statute, or ignoring it entirely.
- Forgetting that the delegating dentist remains responsible.
- Assuming "aiding unlicensed practice" punishes only the unlicensed person.
- Quoting a supervision level without checking which procedure it governs.