Practicing as a dental hygienist in Oklahoma can be a very highly desirable healthcare career. Dental hygiene practice gives you constant positive interaction with a needful and appreciative patient base. Your practice also gives you professional reputation, employment security, and financial rewards. And practice in Oklahoma enables you to enjoy the state’s fine cities, towns, and schools, rich history and culture, beautiful natural environment, and benefits of a stable and growing economy. You earned it, with all you’ve invested in your dental hygienist education, examination, license, and career. Don’t let the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry disciplinary charges lead to suspension or revocation of your license and loss of every benefit of your dental hygienist career. Retain the LLF National Law Firm’s premier Professional License Defense Team for the skilled and experienced defense representation you need. Our highly qualified attorneys are available in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Norman, Broken Arrow, Edmond, Lawton, Moore, Midwest City, Enid, Stillwater, Owasso, Bartlesville, Muskogee, Shawnee, Bixby, and across the rest of Oklahoma. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now to preserve your Oklahoma dental hygienist practice against Board of Dentistry disciplinary charges.
Oklahoma Dental Hygienist License Requirement
You must retain your Oklahoma Board of Dentistry dental hygiene license if you wish to continue to practice as a dental hygienist in the state. Lose your dental hygienist license, and you must not practice as a dental hygienist in Oklahoma. Oklahoma State Dental Act Section 328.49 makes it unlawful for a dental hygienist to practice without a license or to hold oneself out as a dental hygienist without a license. Section 328.49 further makes it a felony crime to practice as a dental hygienist without a license, punishable by a fine up to $10,000 and up to four years in prison. Convinced? You should be, although the Board of Dentistry has its own civil penalty and other powers to discover, prevent, and punish unlicensed dental hygienist practice. Let us help defend your dental hygienist license against Board of Dentistry disciplinary charges.
Oklahoma Dental Hygienist Licensing Authority
You must deal with the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry to retain, renew, and defend your dental hygienist license. Oklahoma State Dental Act Section 328.7 creates the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry to regulate dental and dental hygienist practice in the state. Section 328.7 requires the Board of Dentistry to include a dental hygienist member in addition to the Board’s dentist members. Section 328.15 empowers the Board to license dental hygienists. Section 328.34 articulates the permissible scope of dental hygienist practice, as the Board of Dentistry enforces. The Board of Dentistry is thus your regulatory board, not just your supervising dentist’s board. Respect the Board of Dentistry’s role in your dental hygienist licensure. And if you don’t respect the role, then at least respect the Board of Dentistry’s authority. Let us help you deal effectively with the Board of Dentistry. You must do so to retain your dental hygienist license against disciplinary charges.
Oklahoma Dental Hygienist License Discipline
Oklahoma State Dental Act Section 328.15 expressly empowers the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry not only to regulate dental hygienist practice but also to investigate and discipline hygienist licenses that the Board issues. Section 328.33 lists the grounds on which the Board of Dentistry may discipline a dental hygienist. Section 328.33 refers to Section 328.44a for the sanctions the Board of Dentistry may impose against a dental hygienist. Those sanctions include license suspension, revocation, restriction, probation, censure, denial, refusal to renew, restriction, monitoring, and civil penalties up to $1,500 for each violation. Obviously, you need to take the Board of Dentistry’s disciplinary charges seriously, given the potentially severe sanctions. The Board of Dentistry has the discretion to impose the sanction it wishes. While that discretion may frighten you, we instead construe it as our opportunity to make your best defense case to mitigate any sanction, even if the Board finds that you violated its disciplinary rules. Our attorneys know the remedial measures the Board may accept in lieu of punitive sanctions.
Oklahoma Dental Hygienist Misconduct
Oklahoma State Dental Act Section 328.33 lists twenty-three separate disciplinary grounds on which the Board of Dentistry may discipline your dental hygiene license. Those statutory grounds represent the theoretical limit of the Board of Dentistry’s authority to discipline your dental hygiene license, although some of the grounds are so broad as to reach any conduct the Board of Dentistry wishes to punish. The statutory grounds are also the common violations dental hygienists commit. Section 328.33 lists these disciplinary grounds:
- conviction of a felony crime, misdemeanor crime of moral turpitude, or crime violating state or federal controlled substances laws;
- credential fraud presenting the Board with a false degree, license, or certificate, or obtaining a license by fraud or illegal means;
- persistent inebriety or addiction to drugs, making one incompetent to practice dental hygiene;
- dishonorable or unprofessional conduct;
- failure to pay registration fees as required by the State Dental Act requires;
- being a menace to the public because of communicable disease;
- mental incapacitation or admission to a mental institution, until proven mentally competent;
- gross immorality;
- incompetence in the practice of dental hygiene;
- willful negligence in the practice of dental hygiene;
- involuntary commitment for drug addiction;
- exceeding the scope of dental hygiene practice;
- claiming the use of secret or patented treatment methods other than lawfully authorized;
- asserting the ability to diagnose and prescribe for treatment;
- performing dental services that the State Dental Act does not authorize;
- practicing dental hygiene in an unauthorized location or facility;
- attempting to recruit past patients from a former dental practice;
- incurring conviction or license discipline in another state for violating its dental hygienist laws;
- failing to comply with a Board of Dentistry order of discipline.
Don’t let your Oklahoma Board of Dentistry notice of disciplinary charges, alleging one or more of the above violations, entirely disarm you. Instead, promptly retain us to defend the charges, even if you believe you committed violations that the Board of Dentistry alleges. Let us make your best case in mitigation of the charges and in favor of alternative remedial measures. Your reasonable goal should be to avoid any discipline affecting your clean record and potentially your employment and reputation.
Oklahoma Dental Hygienist Disciplinary Investigation
Oklahoma State Dental Act Section 328.15A authorizes the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry to employ and empower investigators to help the Board prepare administrative license actions against dental hygienists. Section 328.15A designates Board investigators as peace officers with all those powers of law enforcement, to ensure investigators can secure and preserve evidence of wrongdoing. The Board of Dentistry maintains an Investigative Review Panel to coordinate investigations. The investigator will interview witnesses and gather documents, compelling cooperation and production as necessary. You may learn of an ongoing investigation against you from colleagues, patients, employer representatives, or others whom the investigator contacts. The investigator may decide not to notify, contact, or interview you or may wait to interview you until they have all other evidence in hand.
Response to Oklahoma Dental Hygienist Investigation
Retain us if you learn of an ongoing investigation so that we can help you secure and preserve your exonerating and mitigating evidence, and help you cooperate with and respond to the investigation. Do not submit to an interview or supply a statement or other information without first allowing us to help you ensure that your responses are accurate and complete. The Board of Dentistry may construe your errors, omissions, and contradictions as obstructing the proceeding. We can help you submit to an interview once you are fully informed and able to answer truthfully and accurately. We may also be able to supply the investigator with your defense evidence in a reliable form for the investigator to take into account in reaching recommendations on the charges. We may also be able to negotiate alternative remedial relief to avoid further disciplinary proceedings.
Oklahoma Dental Hygienist Complaints
Oklahoma Board of Dentistry Rule 195:3-1-4 details how the Board of Dentistry proceeds on a complaint against a dental hygienist. Anyone may complain of a dental hygienist’s violation of a rule or standard. Patients, their family members, colleagues, supervisors, and other employer representatives are common complainants, although the Board of Dentistry may also receive complaints from law enforcement, court officials, and other agency officials who become aware of suspected dental hygienist misconduct. The Board refers complaints to an Investigative Review Panel for processing and investigation. Rule 195:3-1-4 indicates that once the investigation is complete, the Investigative Review Panel employs an attorney to help prepare the formal Statement of Complaint. If the Board of Dentistry’s president approves the Statement of Complaint, the Board serves the Statement of Complaint on the accused dental hygienist and sets the complaint for hearing. Retain us as soon as you receive or learn of a pending Statement of Complaint. We can help you evaluate and answer the Complaint while identifying, securing, and preserving your defense evidence.
Oklahoma Dental Hygienist Disciplinary Hearing
You have a constitutional right to due process that the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry must respect. Accordingly, Oklahoma State Dental Act Section 328.44a permits the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry to impose the listed sanctions only after a hearing in accordance with the state’s Administrative Procedures Act. Section 328.44a further raises the Board of Dentistry’s proof standard from the lower preponderance of the evidence standard to the higher clear and convincing evidence standard. That move provides a favorable environment for us to resolve your disciplinary charges in your favor. If your charges do not resolve by preliminary negotiations, we can appear on your behalf at the formal hearing to present your witnesses and cross-examine adverse witnesses, and otherwise advocate effectively on your behalf.
Defending Oklahoma Dental Hygienist Charges
If you retain an unqualified local criminal defense lawyer or civil litigator who lacks our attorneys’ administrative knowledge, skill, and experience, your representative may do more harm than good. Court matters differ from administrative matters in their laws, rules, and procedures. Not only do our attorneys have the skills and experience your effective defense requires, but we also have the reputation and relationships to gain the confidence and trust of disciplinary officials, to advocate for informal favorable resolution. But if necessary, we also have the administrative hearing skills for effective advocacy and favorable hearing outcomes.
Oklahoma Dental Hygienist Post-Hearing Relief
If you have already lost your administrative hearing and the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry has already imposed license discipline, we may be able to obtain a reversal of the finding and discipline through your administrative appeal under Oklahoma’s Administrative Procedures Act. Let us prepare and pursue your appeal. We can also seek civil court relief as the Administrative Procedure Act permits.
Mitigating Oklahoma Dental Hygienist Sanctions
As already mentioned above, even if the Board of Dentistry finds against you on the allegations that you violated its rules and standards, we may be able to make a case in mitigation of disciplinary sanctions. Violations are one thing, while sanctions are another. Sanctions should depend on your need for deterrence and rehabilitation. We may be able to show that you had a good excuse for your violation, you already corrected it, you won’t repeat it, and you have rehabilitated your character and reputation through remedial education, training, monitoring, mentoring, and supervision.
Oklahoma Dental Hygienist Disciplinary Impacts
Oklahoma Board of Dentistry discipline can have severe collateral consequences, affecting your job, reputation, relationships, and career. Don’t underestimate those collateral impacts when deciding how to respond to your disciplinary charges. Let us help you avoid discipline and thus avoid those other concerning collateral consequences.
Premier Oklahoma Dental Hygienist License Defense
Defend your Oklahoma Board of Dentistry disciplinary charges with the premier defense representation of the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team. Our attorneys have helped hundreds of dental hygienists and other health professionals successfully defend license disciplinary charges in Oklahoma and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now.