Professional Conduct, Complaints, and Board Investigations
Conduct the Board enforces
The Board may discipline for unprofessional conduct, incompetence, gross negligence, fraud, false advertising, practicing beyond scope, impaired practice, and failure to cooperate with an investigation. Patient abandonment, prescribing without an examination, confidentiality breaches, and boundary violations are commonly tested. A criminal charge or malpractice suit is not automatically a Board violation, but the underlying conduct may be; the Board applies its own standard, not the civil standard of care alone.
Complaints and investigations
A complaint should be written and specific. Board staff may request records, interview the licensee, and use an investigator or expert. The licensee must respond honestly and on time; altering records or coaching staff to give false statements is separate misconduct. The Board may dismiss, issue a consent order, or set a hearing. Summary suspension is reserved for immediate danger to the public, with due-process review.
Worked example
A patient complains that a crown fits poorly. The Board investigates; the dentist refunds the fee and sends a polite note. The refund does not end the matter if the records show the dentist never adjusted the occlusion and then altered the chart after the complaint. The Board can pursue both the clinical deficiency and record alteration; the refund is relevant to remediation but not a defense.
Traps
Do not ignore a Board letter or treat it as a lawsuit to be handled only by an insurer. Do not assume patient confidentiality prevents the Board from obtaining treatment records for its investigation. Do not confuse no malpractice with no discipline-unprofessional conduct can be independent of clinical outcome.