Illinois Dental Practice Act and Administrative Rules
Domain 1 tests how Illinois structures dental regulation and where authority actually sits. Questions often turn on the difference between the Dental Practice Act (225 ILCS 25) and the Department's rules (68 Ill. Adm. Code 1220), and on who may act for the state.
Statutory architecture
- The Act defines and prohibits unlicensed practice, sets licensure categories, and lists grounds for discipline.
- The Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) administers and enforces; the Secretary issues final orders.
- The Board of Dentistry is advisory: it reviews applications and disciplinary matters and recommends, but it does not itself license or sanction.
Definitions drive answers
The Act defines the practice of dentistry broadly, including diagnosis, treatment planning, surgery, prescribing, and interpreting radiographs, and defines dental hygiene and dental assisting separately. A task is regulated by what it is, not by who usually performs it. Rules must be consistent with the statute; a rule cannot expand scope.
Worked example
A complaint alleges an untrained aide exposed a radiograph. Analysis: exposing a radiograph is part of dentistry; a hygienist may do it within scope, and an assistant may do it only when trained and delegated under the rules. Because the aide was untrained and the dentist allowed it, the aide engaged in unlicensed practice and the dentist faces discipline for aiding it.
Traps
- Saying the Board disciplines licensees; the Secretary does, on the Board's recommendation.
- Treating the Act as dentist-only; hygienists and assistants are covered.
- Assuming a rule can authorize something the statute forbids.