Senate Bill No. 66
(By Senators Wooton and Bailey)
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[Introduced February 14, 2001; referred to the
Committee on Government Organization.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections four, seven and seventeen-b,
article four, chapter thirty of the code of West Virginia,
one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all
relating to the board of dental examiners; grounds for
refusal to issue, suspend or revoke professional license;
compensation for board members increased; and annual dental
license renewal fee increased.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections four, seven and seventeen-b, article four,
chapter thirty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. DENTISTS, DENTAL HYGIENISTS AND DENTAL CORPORATIONS.
§30-4-4. Board of dental examiners.
The "West Virginia Board of Dental Examiners" heretofore
established shall be continued and shall be composed of six
members. The members of the board in office on the date this
section takes effect shall, unless sooner removed, continue to
serve until their respective terms expire and until their
successors have been appointed and have qualified. Members of
the board shall serve for a term of five years. In addition to
the five practicing dentists appointed to the board, there shall
be appointed one dental hygienist with a degree in dental hygiene
from an accredited college, who shall be appointed for a term
beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
seventy-seven. The member of the board who is a licensed dental
hygienist is empowered to participate in and vote on all
transactions and business of the board.
All members of the board shall be appointed by the governor,
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Each member of
the board, at the time of his or her appointment and during his
or her term as such member, shall have been a citizen of this
state and shall have been either a licensed dentist or a licensed dental hygienist for a period of not less than five years
immediately preceding his or her appointment.
No person may be eligible for appointment to the board who
is connected with or interested in any dental college or dental
department of any institution of learning or in a dental supply
business.
Except for the dental hygienist, any member shall be
eligible for reappointment for one additional consecutive term.
Each appointment of a licensed dentist, whether for a full
term or to fill a vacancy, shall be made by the governor from
among three nominees therefor selected by the West Virginia
dental association and each appointment of a licensed dental
hygienist, whether for a full term or to fill a vacancy, shall be
made by the governor from among three nominees therefor selected
by the West Virginia dental hygienists' association. In the case
of an appointment for a full term such nominations shall be
submitted to the governor not later than eight months prior to
the date on which the appointment shall become effective. In the
case of an appointment to fill a vacancy, such nominations shall
be submitted to the governor within thirty days after a request
for such nominations shall have been made by the governor to the president of the West Virginia dental association or the
president of the West Virginia dental hygienists' association.
In the event of the failure of an association to submit to the
governor nominations for an appointment in accordance with the
requirements of this section, the governor may make the
appointment without such nominations.
Notwithstanding the provisions of section eleven, article
one of this chapter, each member of the board shall receive one
two hundred dollars for each day actually spent in attending
meetings of the board, or of its committees, and shall also be
reimbursed for all reasonable and necessary expenses actually
incurred in the discharge of his or her duties under the
provisions of this article.
§30-4-7. Refusal to issue, suspension or revocation of license;
grounds.
The state board of dental examiners may refuse to issue a
license to practice dentistry or dental hygiene in this state, or
after issuance may suspend or revoke the same, for any of the
following causes:
(1) (a) The presentation to the board of any diploma,
license or certificate illegally or fraudulently obtained, or one obtained from an institution which is not reputable, or one
obtained from an unrecognized or irregular institution or state
board.
(b) Suspension or revocation of a license issued by another
state or territory on grounds which would be the basis of
discipline in this state.
(c) Incompetent, negligent or willful misconduct in the
practice of dentistry or dental hygiene, which includes the
rendering of unnecessary dental services and any departure from,
or the failure to conform to, the minimal standards of acceptable
and prevailing dental or dental hygiene practice in their area of
expertise as determined by the board. The board need not
establish actual injury to the patient in order to adjudge a
dentist, dental hygienist or limited registrant guilty of this
conduct.
(d) Engaged in conduct that indicates a lack of knowledge
of, an inability to apply or the negligent application of,
principles or skills of dentistry or dental hygiene.
(2) (e) Be guilty of gross ignorance or gross inefficiency
in his or her profession.
(3) (f) Conviction of a felony; and a certified copy of the record of the court of conviction shall be sufficient proof of
such conviction.
(4) (g) Announcing or otherwise holding himself or herself
out to the public as a specialist or as being specially qualified
in any particular branch of dentistry or as giving special
attention to any branch of dentistry or as limiting his or her
practice to any branch of dentistry without first complying with
the requirements established by the board of dental examiners for
such specialty and having been issued a certificate of
qualification in such specialty by the board.
(5) (h) Be guilty of unprofessional conduct. The following
acts or any of them shall be conclusively presumed to be
unprofessional conduct:
(a) (1) Be guilty of any fraud or deception.
(b) (2) The commission of a criminal operation or conviction
of a crime involving moral turpitude.
(c) (3) Chronic or persistent inebriety or addiction to
narcotics or drugs.
(d) (4) Be guilty of the violation of any professional
confidence or be guilty of disclosing any professional secret.
(e) (5) Be grossly immoral.
(f) (6) Be guilty of employing what are known as "cappers"
or "steerers" to obtain business.
(g) (7) The obtaining of any fee by fraud or
misrepresentation.
(h) (8) Employ directly or indirectly, or direct or permit
any suspended or unlicensed person so employed, to perform
operations of any kind or to treat lesions of the human teeth or
jaws or correct malimposed formations thereof.
(i) (9) Practice, or offer or undertake to practice,
dentistry under any firm name or trade name or under any name
other than his or her own true name: Provided, That any licensee
may practice under a firm name or partnership name containing
nothing but the surname of every member of such firm or
partnership.
(j) (10) Professional connection or association with, or
lending his or her name to another, for the illegal practice of
dentistry, or professional connection or association with any
person, firm, or corporation holding himself, themselves, or
itself out in any manner contrary to this article.
(k) (11) Make use of any advertising relating to the use of
any drug or medicine of unknown formula.
(l) (12) Advertise to practice dentistry or perform any
operation thereunder without causing pain.
(m) (13) Advertise professional superiority or the
performance of professional services in a superior manner.
(n) Advertise prices charged for professional service.
(o) Advertise by means of large display, flickering, or
glaring light signs, or contain as a part thereof the
representation of a tooth, teeth, or bridgework, or any portion
of the human head.
(p) Employ or make use of advertising solicitors or free
publicity press agents.
(q) (14) Advertise to guarantee any dental service.
(r) Advertise in any manner calculated to, or tending to,
deceive or mislead the public: Provided, That such licensee may
announce, by way of a professional card containing not more than
his name, title, degree, office location, office hours, business
telephone number, and residence address and telephone number, if
desired, and if he limits his practice to a specialty he may
announce it, but such card shall not be greater in any case than
five inches by six inches in size and such information may be
inserted in public print when not more than two newspaper columns in width and two inches in depth; and he may announce his change
of place of business, absence from, or return to, business in the
same manner, and issue appointment cards to his patients, when
the information thereon is limited to matter pertaining to the
time and place of appointment and that permitted on the
professional card, and he may display his name, title, and degree
upon the windows or doors of his office and by a doorplate or
nameplate or office directory when the information is limited to
not more than that contained on the professional card, but the
name, title and degree of the licensee shall not be displayed on
said doors, windows, doorplates, and nameplates or office
directory in lettering greater in height than seven inches.
(s) (15) To solicit subscriptions from individuals within or
without the state for, or advertise or offer to individuals
within or without the state, a course or instruction or course
materials in any phase, part or branch of dentistry or dental
hygiene in any journal, newspaper, magazine or dental
publication, or by means of radio, television, or United States
mail, or in or by any other means of contacting individuals:
Provided, That the foregoing provisions of this subparagraph (s)
shall not be construed so as to prohibit: (i) An individual dentist or dental hygienist from presenting articles pertaining
to procedures; or technique to state or national journals or
accepted dental publications; or (ii) educational institutions
approved by the board from offering courses or instruction or
course materials to individual dentists and dental hygienists
from within or without the state.
The term advertising, as used in this section, shall be
construed to include the use of radio or any loud-speaking device
or any other similar method or agency any and all types of public
media.
(16) Any action or conduct which would have warranted the
denial of the license.
This entire section is passed in the interest of the public
health, safety and welfare, and its provisions shall be liberally
construed to carry out its object and purpose.
§30-4-17b. Annual information and renewal fee; notice;
reinstatement; penalty fees; waiver of payment
of fee on retirement or disability; change of
address.
On or before the first day of February of each year, every
dentist licensed to practice dentistry in this state, and every dental hygienist licensed to practice dental hygiene in this
state, shall transmit to the secretary of the board upon a form
prescribed by the board, his or her signature, post-office
address, office address, the serial number of his or her license
certificate, whether he or she has been engaged during the
preceding year in the active and continuous practice of dentistry
or dental hygiene, as the case may be, whether within or without
this state, and such other information as may be required by the
board, together with an information and renewal fee herein
provided for.
The annual information and renewal fee for a dentist shall
be seventy-five one hundred twenty-five dollars and for a dental
hygienist shall be fifty dollars: Provided, That nothing stated
herein shall prevent the board from setting such fees by rule as
provided in section six, article one, chapter thirty of this
code.
Upon receipt of the required information and the payment of
the proper renewal fee, the licensee shall be issued a renewal
certificate authorizing him or her to continue the practice of
dentistry or the practice of dental hygiene in this state for a
period of one year from the first day of February.
A license to practice dentistry or dental hygiene granted
under the authority of this article shall be canceled on the
first day of May if the holder thereof fails to secure a current
renewal certificate by that day. Any licensee whose license is
thus canceled by reason of the failure, neglect or refusal to
secure the proper renewal certificate may be reinstated by the
board at any time within six months from the date of the
cancellation of said license upon the payment of the proper
renewal fee and an additional fee of twenty-five dollars. If the
licensee shall not apply for renewal of his or her license as
herein required within the said six months, that person shall, at
the discretion of said board, be required to file an application
for and take the examination provided in this article should he
or she desire to practice dentistry or dental hygiene in this
state.
Upon failure of any licensee to submit the required
information and pay the annual renewal fee as herein required by
the statutory date, the board shall attempt to notify such
licensee in writing by mailing to his or her last registered
address a notice of the requirements of this section apprising
him or her of the fact that his or her license to practice will be canceled on the statutory date: Provided, That failure to
mail or receive such notice shall not affect the cancellation of
his or her license.
The board may waive the annual payment of the renewal fee
herein required, and issue a renewal certificate to any West
Virginia licensee for at least twenty-five years and who is
presently retired from active practice, or to any West Virginia
licensee who has retired for reasons of physical disability, so
long as such retirement continues: Provided, That the licensee
provides the board with the information required by this section.
Every licensed dentist within thirty days of changing his or
her place of practice or establishing additional offices shall
furnish the secretary of the board with his or her new
professional address.
Every licensed dental hygienist within thirty days of
changing his or her place of employment shall furnish the
secretary of the board with his or her new professional address
and the name of his or her employer.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide additional
grounds for refusing to issue, suspending or revoking a dental
license, to raise the annual dental license renewal fee from $75 to $125, and to raise the compensation for dental board members
from $100 to $200 per day.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.