As a Mobile dentist, you worked hard and studied for years before you were finally able to enter the workforce and start making a name for yourself. That was a significant investment of time and effort, and you should protect your Alabama dental license like the extremely valuable investment it is. If the Alabama Board of Dental Examiners has contacted you, take the matter seriously and get help before the Board complaint leads to serious discipline, sanctions, and disruptions to your career in Mobile, Daphne, Fairhope, and the rest of Mobile Bay.
The LLF National Law Firm can assist you in responding to all types of Board investigations, crafting written responses that protect your name, and gathering evidence that supports a strong defense. If you wait too long or don’t treat the Board’s concern with the seriousness it deserves, your entire career may be at risk. Call our Professional License Defense Team today at 888-535-3686 or contact us through our confidential online form to begin your defense.
License Discipline for Mobile Dentists
You may believe that the Board of Dental Examiners of Alabama is only there to deal with your license applications and renewals, but that is far from the truth. Instead, the Board is primarily focused on protecting the public and ensuring that Alabama dentists provide quality dental care to patients. Checking licensure eligibility is just one tool that the Board uses to achieve this goal, along with pursuing disciplinary action against dentists who jeopardize public health or act unprofessionally. Potential grounds for dentist license discipline that Mobile dentists may face include:
- Gross immorality.
- Negligence in patient care, such as failing to provide dental services in a manner that a reasonable, prudent dentist would have in similar circumstances.
- Gross negligence, such as deliberately ignoring patient safety or health and acting with malicious, reckless, or conscious disregard for others’ rights or safety.
- Practicing while unfit for the practice of dentistry due to habitual use of intoxicants or drugs.
- Convictions for federal or state drug laws.
- Practicing dentistry and being a menace to public health due to a health concern.
- Obtaining a license, registration, money, or certificate through fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.
- Willful or negligent sanitation violations.
- Associating with or lending your name to any form of illegal dental practice.
- Felony convictions or misdemeanors involving moral turpitude.
- Prescribing, administering, or dispensing controlled substances for non-dental purposes.
- Permitting unlicensed persons to perform work that legally requires an Alabama dental license.
- Insurance billing irregularities, improper referrals or monetary arrangements, and other misconduct involving false payments or charges.
- Patient abandonment.
- Violations of adopted Board rules or out-of-state Board disciplinary action.
The Board doesn’t simply rubber-stamp your dentist license without doing its due diligence. It’s a constant job, which means you may suddenly face allegations of misconduct or unprofessional behavior out of the blue. As you might expect, this can significantly disrupt your day-to-day, making it much harder to care for Mobile patients while dealing with the Board and defending your name.
The LLF National Law Firm is here to help you keep your license and reputation out of harm’s way when the Board of Dental Examiners of Alabama has concerns. Our Professional License Defense Team can work with you from day one to coordinate with the Board and help protect you from serious disciplinary punishment. Even if you’re already deep into the disciplinary process, get in touch and let us improve your odds of a successful defense or appeal.
Mobile Dentist License Possible Disciplinary Sanctions
Alabama’s Dental Practice Act gives the Board the power to take disciplinary action when it believes you are guilty of any conduct that is grounds for disciplinary action. Importantly, the standard of evidence is lower than in criminal courts, and you may face sanctions much harsher than you expect. The LLF National Law Firm can help defend you and lessen the risk of serious disciplinary sanctions, which may include:
- Refusing to reissue you an Alabama dentist license.
- Placing you on probation for a fixed period.
- Assessing the costs of the disciplinary proceeding.
- Imposing administrative fines of up to $5,000 per offense.
- Restricting the scope of your dental practice.
- Requiring peer review or professional education.
- Entering a censure.
- Suspending your license.
- Revoking your license.
Once you receive your license sanctions, the work isn’t over. If the Board imposes probation and terms on your license, you must closely adhere to them, or else the Board can move to suspend or revoke your license. When you’re working hard every day to care for patients or run your own practice, practicing with restrictions can be immensely challenging. That’s why you want to avoid serious sanctions and try to reach an agreement with the Board that preserves your rights and reputation. The LLF National Law Firm has direct experience negotiating with the Board of Dental Examiners of Alabama and defending Mobile and Baldwin County dentists when it matters most.
License Disciplinary Process for Dentists in the Mobile Metro Area
The Board of Dental Examiners of Alabama plays an important role in protecting the health and safety of Mobile patients, so it reviews all complaints it receives. That means that at nearly any time, someone can file a complaint against you and trigger the Board to act, even if you never receive any negative feedback from the person filing. The Board’s process can take months, and there is a lot that can go wrong if you don’t know what to expect.
The LLF National Law Firm has defended dentists nationwide, including in Alabama, when their licenses come under threat. Our Professional License Defense Team wants to help, so get in touch at the first sign of trouble to protect your professional career in Mobile, Daphne, Fairhope, and the rest of Baldwin County.
Complaint
Complaints take many forms. The Board itself can initiate a complaint anytime it has reason to believe that you violated the Alabama Dental Practice Act or any other Board rule. The Board can even accept informal oral complaints, typically when someone makes a report to the Alabama Dental Professionals Wellness Committee regarding impairment or when a government agency, healthcare provider, or other regulatory agency provides information. However, the most standard route is a written complaint, formally filed with the Board. Anyone can make a report, such as patients, family members, employers, or colleagues.
Initial Complaint Review
Even though the Board takes in and reviews all complaints, it does not thoroughly investigate all of them. If a complaint does not contain potential violations or is outside the Board’s jurisdiction, the Board will close the matter before initiating an investigation.
Investigation
If the Board doesn’t decline to investigate, it will move forward with an investigation. First, investigators reach out to the complainant to gather any additional information they have. Next, the investigator and Enforcement Group determine whether they need to take any immediate action, typically for concerns over substance use, impairment, and public safety threats. Only after this early due diligence will the real investigation begin.
Investigators can issue subpoenas to obtain documents and evidence, request records, review your history in Alabama’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, and gather additional testimony regarding the violations. All of this can happen before you receive the first notification of a complaint and investigation that threatens your dentist’s license.
Response
Before the Board decides to move forward, its standard process is to ask you to respond directly to the allegations in the complaint. You need to craft a targeted, thoughtful response to increase your odds of defending your license, and our Professional License Defense Team can help.
Board Review
After the investigation, the investigation’s team Leader will present the investigative findings to the Board along with a recommendation, which may include closing the case, issuing a Notice of Hearing, or taking lesser action, such as non-disciplinary fines. If the Board decides to proceed and pursue harsher sanctions and discipline, it will issue a Notice of Hearing and reach out to you.
Consent Order
At any time after you first receive notice of a complaint against you, you can negotiate with the Board to conclude your case through a consent order rather than a contested hearing. Consent orders are an opportunity to conclude your disciplinary matter without the need to attend a hearing and directly face questioning and scrutiny from a prosecutor. The LLF National Law Firm has many years of experience negotiating consent orders with dental boards nationwide, and we can help you decide if a negotiated agreement is the best decision in your case.
Hearing
If you do not resolve your case early with the Board, the next step is a formal hearing. A prosecutor will present the case to an Alabama hearing officer and the Board, and you have the opportunity to present your defense of the allegations you face. You don’t want to enter hearings unprepared, so get in touch with our Professional License Defense Team to learn how we can advocate for you directly in the room and prepare you for all questions.
Decision
After considering the evidence, the Board may impose one or more sanctions allowed by the Alabama Dental Practice Act. In addition, if substance use or impairment is part of the picture, the Alabama Dental Professionals Wellness Committee may offer another path. The Board has discretion to refrain from taking discipline if you are engaged in treatment or rehabilitation, especially if you self-report and comply with monitoring. That kind of option can be valuable, but only if it truly fits your case. The LLF National Law Firm can review your options and coordinate with the Board to determine whether this alternative program can protect your license from harsh sanctions.
Appeal
You can appeal Board orders that impose disciplinary penalties in circuit court on the grounds that the order is unlawful or arbitrary. If you are already facing discipline on your Alabama dentist license and your Mobile career is at risk, contact the LLF National Law Firm as soon as possible to understand your appeal options better.
Unfortunately, by the time you are thinking about an appeal, the case may already have done serious damage to your professional standing in Mobile and Baldwin County. Almost everything after the investigatory phase—including Notices of Hearing, Board actions, and findings—is a public record. In fact, the Board posts disciplinary actions on its website, making it trivial for anyone to search your name and discover any of your recent disciplinary history. You need to take early action to keep your license and career safe, and the LLF National Law Firm is here to help.
Defend Your Dental License in Mobile Bay and Baldwin County
Whether you work for a larger healthcare institution in Mobile or run your own office in Spanish Fort, you have the same limitations. You need an Alabama dentist license to continue your career, and you need a strong, reliable reputation to stay desirable to patients. Discipline touches every part of your career, including hiring, referrals, future partnerships, and long-term growth in the Mobile metro area. Failing to protect your license when it matters most can negatively impact your employment or business for years to come, even if the discipline appears minor at first glance.
Whenever possible, no discipline is the goal. If that is not possible, you should aim for relatively minor sanctions that either do not limit your practice capabilities or your ability to care for patients. Do not settle for less and ruin the career you worked so hard to build. Our Professional License Defense Team understands what’s at stake, and we want to help if the Board of Dental Examiners of Alabama is reaching out with concerns.
The LLF National Law Firm has many years of experience defending Mobile dentists facing allegations of misconduct, unprofessional behavior, impairment, or other serious violations of the Alabama Dental Practice Act. Call today at 888-535-3686 or contact us through our website to get started on your Alabama dentist license defense.