Indiana Dental Practice Act: Scope, Definitions, and Statutory Structure
The statutory layers
Indiana dentistry is governed primarily by IC 25-14, which creates the licensing scheme and defines the practice of dentistry and dental hygiene. The Board of Dentistry adopts administrative rules, chiefly at 828 IAC 1, and the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (IPLA) administers applications, renewals, and complaints. The statute supplies the broad legal boundaries; the rules supply operational detail such as supervision, expanded functions, infection control, and CE.
Definitions that drive scope
- Practice of dentistry is defined broadly: diagnosis, treatment, surgery, prescription, and holding out as able to perform those acts. It includes offering services for compensation.
- Dental hygiene is a separate licensed scope, not independent dentistry; it is performed under the supervision structure set by law and rule.
- Dental assistant is not a licensed profession in the same sense as dentist or hygienist; assistants may perform limited duties and, with board-approved certification, expanded functions.
Worked example
A retail kiosk takes a photo, selects a shade, and applies a light-activated whitening gel for a fee. Is this practice of dentistry? The analysis starts with the statutory definition, not the absence of drilling. The staff are assessing teeth and applying a treatment to improve dental appearance for compensation. That falls within the broad definition of practicing dentistry, so a licensed dentist and the required supervision must be involved. The kiosk cannot rely on the claim that whitening is cosmetic.
Traps that cost marks
- Assuming a hygienist may practice independently because hygiene is a separate license.
- Treating 'dental assistant' as a license equivalent to dentist or hygienist.
- Quoting only the statute while ignoring later board rules that fill in the details.
- Forgetting that holding out as a dentist, even without treatment, can violate the Act.