The Minnesota Dental Practice Act: Statutes, Board Rules, and Board Authority
Two layers of law
The Dental Practice Act is Minn. Stat. ch. 150A; the operational detail lives in Minnesota Rules ch. 3100 (Board of Dentistry rules). The statute defines scope, license categories, grounds for discipline, and Board powers; the rules fill in continuing education, record-keeping, infection control, sedation permits, and similar mechanics. A rule cannot enlarge or contradict the statute. When a question pits statute against rule, the statute controls.
What the Board can and cannot do
The Board licenses and renews, adopts rules, screens complaints, investigates, and imposes discipline ranging from a reprimand through limitations and suspension to revocation, plus civil penalties and conditions such as monitoring or remedial education. The Board does not award money damages, decide malpractice liability, resolve fee disputes, or order a dentist to refund a patient. Those are civil matters. Discipline requires a statutory ground proved through the Board's own process.
Defining the practice
The statutory definition of dentistry is broad: diagnosis, treatment planning, prescribing, surgery, and holding oneself out as a dentist. Unlicensed-practice questions usually turn on the conduct, not the title - a technician who takes a bite registration or adjusts a denture in the mouth is engaged in the practice of dentistry regardless of what the office calls it.
Traps
Assuming a malpractice settlement automatically triggers a Board case; assuming a Board subpoena is a court order requiring the same response; assuming "standard of care" questions are decided by the Board's expert rather than by statutory scope. Note also that the Board's authority over hygienists and licensed dental assistants comes from the same statute.
Rule of thumb: classify the question before answering - scope (150A.10), process (complaint through contested case), or practice quality (a specific rule) - because the source of authority differs for each.