A dental hygienist’s practice in Minnesota must be among the most desirable of healthcare professional opportunities. Minnesota’s friendly and substantial population, sound economy, attractive towns, beautiful natural environment, and sophisticated healthcare system all add to the charm and reward of your dental hygienist practice. You invested a great deal of time, trouble, and finances to earn those rewards. Yet, Minnesota Board of Dentistry disciplinary charges against your dental hygienist license can lead to you losing your dental hygiene employment, patients, reputation, relationships, and other practice privileges and benefits. Don’t minimize, underestimate, or ignore your Minnesota Board of Dentistry disciplinary charges. Instead, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for your best disciplinary outcome. Our skilled and experienced attorneys are available in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester, Bloomington, Duluth, Brooklyn Park, Plymouth, Woodbury, Lakeville, Blaine, Maple Grove, St. Cloud, and across the rest of Minnesota. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our highly qualified license defense. Preserve and protect your dental hygienist license and practice.
Minnesota Dental Hygienist License Requirement
You cannot continue to practice dental hygiene in Minnesota without your Board of Dentistry dental hygiene license. Minnesota Dental Practice Act Section 150A.05 defines the practice of dental hygiene, for which the Dental Practice Act requires a license. The Act’s Section 150A.06 states the qualifications a dental hygienist must prove to obtain a Board of Dentistry hygienist license. Those qualifications include a hygienist degree, passing the hygienist examination, and proving good moral character. Board of Dentistry Rule 3100.2100 details the dental hygienist qualifications. The Act’s Section 150A.12 provides that any violation of the Dental Practice Act, such as unlicensed dental hygiene practice, is a misdemeanor crime carrying a potential punishment of a $3,000 fine and up to one year in jail. Thus, you must retain your dental hygienist license if you wish to continue your practice in Minnesota. Lose your license, and you will also lose your dental hygienist employment, patients, and practice, and likely your reputation and relationships with it. Let us help you retain your license against disciplinary charges.
Minnesota Dental Hygienist Licensing Authority
The Minnesota Board of Dentistry holds the state legislature’s authority to issue, renew, and discipline your dental hygienist license. Minnesota Dental Practice Act Section 150A.02 establishes the Board of Dentistry to regulate not only dental practice in the state but also the practice of Minnesota dental hygienists. Section 150A.02 requires the Board to maintain dental hygienist members on the Board along with its dentist members. Section 150A.02 authorizes the Board of Dentistry to adopt rules and regulations, hire staff, and develop programs and resources to carry out its licensing and regulation functions. Do not doubt the Board of Dentistry’s authority. Instead, retain us to help you maintain your Board of Dentistry dental hygienist license in the face of disciplinary charges.
Minnesota Dental Hygienist License Discipline
The Board of Dentistry not only issued your Minnesota dental hygienist license but also retains the authority to suspend, revoke, or otherwise discipline it. See the many disciplinary action reports the Board of Dentistry publishes online. You must continue to meet the statutory terms and conditions for your license as long as you hold it. Minnesota Dental Practice Act Section 150A.08 authorizes the Minnesota Board of Dentistry to discipline dental hygienist licenses. Section 150A.08 states fifteen numbered and in some cases overlapping disciplinary grounds. Section 150A.08 also states the discipline that the Board of Dentistry may impose if you commit one of those disciplinary grounds. Sanctions include denial of a license, refusal to renew a license, suspension or revocation of a license, limitation of a license, and modification of a license with or without conditions. Take your disciplinary charges seriously. Get our skilled defense help.
Minnesota Dental Hygienist Misconduct
The fifteen grounds on which the Minnesota Board of Dentistry may discipline your dental hygienist license indicate the most common forms of dental hygienist misconduct and the only forms for which the Board has express authority to discipline. Minnesota Dental Practice Act Section 150A.08 authorizes dental hygienist license discipline for the following acts:
- fraud or deception when seeking your dental hygienist license, otherwise known as credential fraud;
- conviction of a felony crime or gross misdemeanor crime related to dental hygiene practice;
- conviction of a crime of moral turpitude, typically construed as a crime of dishonesty, baseness, vileness, or corruption;
- habitual overindulgence of intoxicating liquor;
- improper dispensing of any legend drug, chemical, or controlled substance;
- conduct unbecoming of a dental hygienist or contrary to the best interest of the public as the Board of Dentistry may define;
- gross immorality;
- physical, mental, or emotional disability adversely affecting the dental hygienist’s ability to practice;
- license disciplinary action in another state or jurisdiction that would be grounds for discipline in Minnesota;
- failure to maintain sanitary facilities and conditions;
- enabling unlicensed dental or dental hygiene practice;
- refusing to testify or produce records in a Board of Dentistry disciplinary proceeding;
- violating a Board of Dentistry order of discipline;
- providing false or misleading information to a patient in the course of dental or dental hygiene practice; and
- aiding suicide or attempted suicide.
Do not panic if you face one or more of the above Minnesota Board of Dentistry disciplinary charges. A charge is merely an allegation, not a finding that you committed the wrong that the charge alleges. You have the right to contest the Board of Dentistry’s accusations, which may be false, exaggerated, retaliatory, or without supporting evidence. When you retain us as soon as you receive notice of the charges, we can help you evaluate the charges and plan a strategic approach to their defense that maximizes your opportunity to avoid all discipline.
Minnesota Dental Hygienist Complaints
Complaints against a dental hygienist can come from a variety of sources. The identity of the complainant and their knowledge, skill, and reputation can influence the investigation and outcome of any disciplinary charges. Minnesota Dental Practice Act Section 150A.13 permits anyone who knows that a dental hygienist is unable to practice with reasonable skill and safety to report their concern to the Board of Dentistry. The Board of Dentistry maintains an online complaint form for consumer complaints. You may thus face a complaint from a patient, a patient’s family member, or anyone else familiar with your practice, or with your mental or physical disability, or impairment due to illness, injury, drugs, alcohol, or other causes. Section 150A.13, though, further requires licensed professionals, healthcare institutions, and professional associations to report unfit or impaired dental hygienists. You may thus face a complaint from your dental hygiene colleagues, supervising dentists, employer representatives, or others in your professional community. Retain us when learning of a complaint or anticipated complaint so that we can help you identify, secure, and preserve your defense evidence.
Minnesota Dental Hygienist Disciplinary Investigation
The Minnesota Board of Dentistry maintains internal operating policies and procedures guiding disciplinary complaint handling and investigations. If Board of Dentistry officials determine that the complaint against you has arguable merit, the Board assigns an investigator to prepare an investigation report for Board review. The investigator has the authority to interview witnesses and obtain documentation related to the allegations. The investigator may contact you for an interview and documents, but if so, likely after interviewing all other witnesses and obtaining all other documentation. Do not rush into your interview. The investigator and Board may construe against you any errors or omissions you make in your recollection. Instead, immediately retain us to help you gather and review all defense documentation so that your responses to the investigator are accurate, truthful, complete, and non-contradictory.
Response to Minnesota Dental Hygienist Investigation
When you retain us to help you respond to the Minnesota Board of Dentistry disciplinary investigation, you level a playing field that is otherwise sharply tilted against you. We may be able to present your exonerating and mitigating evidence to the investigator in a complete and organized manner to avoid inaccuracies, omissions, and contradictions. We may be able to show the investigator that the allegations are false and that you committed no sanctionable wrong. We may also be able to show the investigator that you promptly corrected any errors and took remedial measures so that the Board has no practice risk with which to be concerned. We may be able to positively influence the investigation report or even convince the Board to forgo any formal charges.
Minnesota Dental Hygienist Disciplinary Hearing
You have the right to due process, meaning fair notice of the charges and a fair hearing before an impartial decision maker, when facing the Minnesota Board of Dentistry disciplinary charges. Minnesota Dental Practice Act Section 150A.08 on disciplinary grounds and proceedings refers to both the Minnesota Administrative Procedure Act and the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings. The Administrative Procedure Act ensures not only that you have the right to a formal hearing but also that you may retain us to represent you at the hearing. An administrative law judge will likely conduct your administrative hearing, ensuring its order through prehearing conferences, exchanges of exhibits and witness lists, and similar protective procedures. Witnesses at the hearing testify under oath, subject to cross-examination, creating a record of the proceeding.
Defending Minnesota Dental Hygienist Charges
Our premier attorneys can invoke your Minnesota Administrative Procedure Act rights to ensure that you achieve your best possible disciplinary outcome. We can answer the charges while raising your defenses. We may arrange conciliation conferences at which to present your exonerating and mitigating evidence to negotiate for early voluntary dismissal. If your matter goes to a formal hearing, we can arrange the attendance of your witnesses and conduct their direct examination. We can also cross-examine adverse witnesses and present and challenge documentary evidence. Don’t attempt to conduct your formal hearing on your own or with unqualified local criminal defense counsel. Administrative hearings differ from court proceedings. Let our skilled and experienced attorneys conduct your formal hearing for your best outcome.
Minnesota Dental Hygienist Post-Hearing Relief
If you have already lost your formal hearing, let us pursue your administrative appeals and seek civil court relief as necessary and appropriate. The Minnesota Administrative Procedure Act, referred to and incorporated by Dental Practice Act Section 150A.08 as discussed above, grants an administrative appeal and limited civil court review. We can obtain the hearing transcript, review it for appeal error, prepare the appeal arguments and brief, and otherwise exhaust your available remedies until we achieve your best disciplinary outcome.
Mitigating Minnesota Dental Hygienist Sanctions
Not every disciplinary charge has a factual defense. You may find yourself compelled by the truth to admit most or all of the misconduct that Minnesota Board of Dentistry officials allege. If that’s your situation, don’t give up. Let us evaluate and prepare a case in mitigation of any disciplinary sanction. Many disciplinary cases turn not on the facts as to whether misconduct occurred but instead on the question of what sanction, if any, is appropriate for misconduct that everyone acknowledges occurred. Our defense on your behalf, in mitigation of sanctions, may show your remedial measures, clean record, good character, and strong skills for safe and competent dental hygiene practice.
Minnesota Dental Hygienist Disciplinary Impacts
Your potential collateral consequences to the Minnesota Board of Dentistry disciplinary charges include employment and income loss, loss of patient base and reputation, and loss of supportive professional relationships. Let us help you avoid not only disciplinary sanctions but also all the potential collateral consequences that go along with sanctions.
Premier Minnesota Dental Hygienist License Defense
If you face Minnesota Board of Dentistry disciplinary charges, retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for the skilled and experienced defense representation you need. We help hundreds of dental hygienists and other health professionals successfully defend license disciplinary charges in Minnesota and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now.