If you’ve successfully earned your Doctor of Dental Surgery or Doctor of Dental Medicine degree, you already understand what it’s like to live a life filled with stress and hard work. You’ve made it through at least 4 years of dental school, you’ve studied for and passed your board and clinical exams, and you may have even completed additional years of residency for your specialty. If you’re a practicing dentist, you’ve also applied for and received your state license.
Becoming a dentist and developing a practice wasn’t easy, but you did it. But the stress doesn’t end there. Working as a dentist is physically and mentally demanding. You have to constantly try to live up to patient expectations, deal with insurance issues, perform complex procedures, and do your best to manage your stress while juggling your patient loads. It’s not hard to see how mistakes can result.
Sometimes, even when you give your job your best effort, you end up facing complaints for substandard care or misconduct and find your license in jeopardy. If you’re a dentist in the greater Spokane, Washington, area, and you find yourself in trouble and at risk of losing your license, you need to quickly secure a legal team that can represent you and defend your license.
The Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm has a long, successful record of protecting the rights of dentists nationwide and helping dentists secure their licenses to continue practicing. If your license is in trouble in Washington state or your license is in trouble in Idaho, call us at 888-535-3686 or complete our confidential contact form to get started and learn how we can help.
Working as a Dentist in the Inland Northwest
The greater Spokane area is a major hub that crosses Washington and Idaho. Commonly known as the Inland Northwest, this tri-city region includes Spokane and Spokane Valley in Washington, as well as Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. With a population in excess of three-quarters of a million people, the area provides an extensive population base for dentists looking to build solid practices.
As with any major metropolitan area, the Inland Northwest offers dentists great opportunities but also brings the risk of dissatisfied patients. While a big population is good for business, having a lot of patients also creates a lot of chances for mistakes, unhappy customers, and subsequent complaints.
This holds true whether you’re practicing dentistry in a private practice or one of the area’s regional or national dental support organizations. As a dentist in the Inland Northwest, you might work for a major dental center such as Willamette Dental, Heartland Dental, Aspen Dental, or Bluetree Dental, where patients come from a diverse cross-section of the region. Even if you work for a private practice like Spokane Family Dental or Riverstone Dental Care, you’re still at risk of dealing with disgruntled patients who want to make you pay for any mistakes you make.
If you’re a dentist in the Inland Northwest and you find yourself facing a formal complaint against you, the Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm can help you manage the situation and give you the best chances for coming away with minimal consequences.
Practicing Dentistry Across State Lines
Because the Inland Northwest sits on the border of two states, there’s a good chance you’ll need to practice dentistry in both states. Because you need a license for the state where you practice, this can affect the licensing requirements you have to meet.
The Washington State Department of Health is in charge of issuing licenses and overseeing dentistry in Washington. In Idaho, the Board of Dentistry, which is part of the state’s Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL), has the responsibility of regulating dentistry in Idaho.
If you work for a practice that has multiple offices throughout the region, you may need to obtain licenses for both states. If you want to get both licenses simultaneously, you’ll need to go through the full application process and exam requirements for each state.
It’s generally easier to get a license for a second state if you already have your license somewhere else. If you already have a Washington license, Idaho’s DOPL lets you waive certain application requirements related to national exams, education, and experience. If you have your Idaho license first, Washington allows you to get your state dentistry license more easily through the American Association of Dental Boards Compact.
While practicing dentistry in a two-state region gives you more options for employment, it doesn’t mean you can escape to the other state if you mess up in the first one. If you face disciplinary action in Idaho, for instance, it becomes part of the public record and can prevent you from getting your license in Washington and working there instead.
Whether you have a license in Washington or Idaho or both, you need to do everything you can to hold onto it. If you’re facing a complaint that threatens your right to keep practicing dentistry in either state, the LLF National Law Firm can help. We have years of experience defending dentists in multiple states and protecting their rights and their licenses.
Facing the Disciplinary Process in the Greater Spokane Area
If someone files a complaint against you for wrongdoing in your dental practice, you have to go through a specific disciplinary process with either the Washington Department of Health or Idaho’s DOPL. While each of these agencies has its own protocol for handling complaints, the processes are fairly similar.
The Washington Department of Health and the Idaho DOPL will accept complaints against dentists from anyone, including patients, co-workers, or other members of the public. Upon receiving the complaint and establishing whether the allegations constitute a violation that falls under the agency’s purview, the agency will assign an investigator to the case.
The investigator will then collect evidence and documentation and conduct interviews with you, the complainant, and other relevant people. The investigator will file their report with the state agency, which will assess whether there’s evidence to support the allegations. The agency can then either close the case or file a formal complaint to start the disciplinary process.
At any time during the case, you can try to negotiate a settlement. However, if you agree to a settlement, you’re essentially admitting guilt and accepting sanctions, and you’re giving up the right to a hearing.
If the case moves to a hearing, you’ll have a chance to present your side of the story and question witnesses. You can have an attorney represent you at the hearing. After the hearing, the agency will issue its final decision and impose sanctions. You’ll have the right to file an appeal if you feel that the decision is unjust and that you have grounds to continue to protest the agency’s actions.
The disciplinary process in both Washington and Idaho is filled with legal hurdles that the Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm knows how to navigate. If you’re facing this process, you need legal representatives who understand how to work with state licensing agencies and defend your license. As a dentist, your focus should be on patient care. The LLF National Law Firm can represent you at a hearing and throughout the complaint process.
Getting into Trouble as a Dentist in the Inland Northwest
So how exactly did you get into this situation in the first place? As a dentist in the Inland Northwest, you can find yourself in trouble for a wide range of behaviors that qualify as misconduct in either Washington or Idaho.
Some of the things that constitute grounds for a complaint and disciplinary action against you include:
- Practicing without a license or with an expired license.
- Falsifying your credentials to earn your license.
- Practicing under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or other controlled substances.
- Prescribing or administering unnecessary or incorrect drugs or dosages.
- Committing fraudulent billing or insurance fraud.
- Engaging in sexual relationships with patients or making inappropriate physical or verbal sexual advances.
- Providing substandard care, including negligence, incompetence, or malpractice.
- Having a felony conviction, or a misdemeanor conviction related to controlled substances or your dentistry practice.
- Breaching patient confidentiality.
- Engaging in false advertising.
- Performing treatments the patient hasn’t authorized.
Despite your best efforts to provide great care and uphold the standards of your profession, sometimes the stress of your job, including juggling your workload, managing your business’ finances, and trying to keep up with all the latest techniques, can lead to errors or poor judgment. Or maybe you’ve simply encountered a difficult patient who wants to make you a scapegoat for their poor dental health.
Whatever the reason, if you’re facing accusations of wrongdoing, you need to take the complaint seriously and make sure you have a legal team that can protect your license. The LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team can represent you and give you the best chances for a successful outcome.
Consequences of Wrongdoing for Dentists in the Greater Spokane Area
Once you’re facing a complaint for one or more violations of the Washington Department of Health’s or the Idaho DOPL’s regulations governing dentistry, you’re at risk of a variety of penalties, some mild, some severe. Possible sanctions include:
- Censure or reprimand
- Mandatory remedial education or treatment
- Probation
- Fines
- License suspension
- License revocation
Regardless of the severity, any sanctions against you become part of the public record. Even if you keep your license and your right to continue practicing, disciplinary actions can still have lasting negative effects on your professional and personal life. You might:
- See your clientele dwindle, as longtime patients lose trust in you, and new patients would rather find a different dentist.
- Struggle financially, whether from fines or the loss of work.
- Lose the trust and respect of your co-workers, making for a strained work environment.
- Limit future employment opportunities when potential employers learn of your past difficulties.
- Create added stress for yourself and your family when your career is on the rocks.
As you can see, the consequences of penalties against you can follow you well into your future, both in the office and at home. Don’t let that happen. Turn to the LLF National Law Firm. We’ll protect your rights and defend your license.
The LLF National Law Firm is the Best Choice
Working as a dentist, you’ve signed up for what’s quite often a very stressful and challenging career. That stress can build up over time and rear its ugly head in different ways. Whether you’ve accidentally or knowingly violated the regulations of your practice or you have a contentious patient who has it in for you, you want to do all you can to avoid or minimize disciplinary action against you.
It’s in your best interest to have a legal team on your side that can manage the complaint process on your behalf and work within the law to safeguard your license. That’s why the Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm is the smart decision. We can:
- Communicate with investigators and the Washington Department of Health or the Idaho DOPL on your behalf.
- Help you prepare for interviews with an investigator or cross-examination at a hearing.
- Collect and present the best evidence to support your case.
- Negotiate for a lenient settlement and help you decide whether accepting a settlement agreement is the right choice.
- Represent you at a hearing, including cross-examining witnesses.
- Identify grounds for an appeal if necessary and manage the appeal process for you.
- Make sure the state agency is following the proper procedures, and protect your rights throughout the disciplinary process.
As a dentist, you probably never learned all the bureaucracy and legal nuances of navigating the complaint process. Why would you ever need to? That’s why the LLF National Law Firm should be your go-to legal team when you’re facing a complaint. We have years of experience handling cases against dentists, understanding the specific state laws related to complaints, and working with state regulatory agencies to defend dentists and their licenses.
If you’re facing a complaint, don’t try to go it alone. Call us at 888-535-3686 or complete our online contact form to schedule a consultation and get started. We’re on your side.