Georgia Dental Practice Act: scope, definitions, and Board authority
Georgia Dental Practice Act: scope, definitions, and Board authority
The Georgia Dental Practice Act, O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 11, together with the Board of Dentistry's rules in Chapter 150 of the Georgia Compiled Rules and Regulations, answers three questions this domain returns to constantly: what counts as dentistry, who may lawfully do each part of it, and what authority the Board holds over the people who do it.
The definition of "practice of dentistry"
The statutory definition is deliberately broad. It reaches diagnosing, treating, operating on, or prescribing for any disease, pain, deformity, deficiency, injury, or physical condition of the teeth, alveolar process, gums, or jaws; extracting teeth; taking radiographs; performing mechanical or surgical procedures on teeth; and holding oneself out to the public as able to do any of these. A person can violate the Act without touching a patient, simply by advertising services only a dentist may lawfully perform.
The scope ladder
- Dentist: diagnosis, treatment planning, prescribing, surgery, irreversible procedures, and overall responsibility for services delivered in the office.
- Dental hygienist: prophylaxis, scaling and root planing, fluoride, sealants, radiographs consistent with certification and supervision rules, plus local anesthesia and nitrous oxide only under permits the Board issues.
- Dental assistant: reversible, listed tasks delegated at the supervision level the rule requires. Expanded-duty assistants may perform additional enumerated functions after Board-recognized training. A scope question is never answered by the task alone; it is answered by task plus license or permit plus supervision level plus documented training.
Supervision levels
Board rules distinguish supervision by whether the dentist is physically present in the office, whether the dentist examined the patient and approved a plan, and whether the dentist is available. Most missed items come from mixing those three variables.
Board authority
The Board is administered through the Professional Licensing Boards Division of the Office of the Secretary of State. It licenses and renews, investigates complaints, subpoenas records, holds hearings under the Georgia Administrative Procedure Act, imposes sanctions, and can seek cease-and-desist relief against unlicensed practice. The Georgia Dental Association is a private professional society with no licensing authority - a favorite distractor.
Worked example
A hygienist in a private practice wants to place sealants on a child the dentist has never seen. Sealants are within hygiene scope, but delegation still requires the supervision level the Board rule assigns to sealants and, at that level, either a dentist's prior examination or a standing authorization. The correct answer names the supervision condition; an answer that says only "sealants are reversible" is incomplete.
Traps
- Confusing the Board with the professional association.
- Treating "reversible" as a free pass around supervision rules.
- Missing that "holding out" alone can constitute unlicensed practice.