Staff Report with Final Results: State Board of Dental Examiners Page: 33
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ISSUE 4
Key Elements of the State Board of Dental Examiners' Licensing
and Regulatory Functions Do Not Conform to Common Licensing
Standards.
Background
The mission of the State Board of Dental Examiners is to protect the public's health and safety by
ensuring dental professionals are qualified, competent, and adhere to established professional standards.
To accomplish its mission, the board licenses dentists and dental hygienists, registers dental assistants
and facilities, and enforces the Dental Practice Act by investigating complaints and taking disciplinary
action when necessary.
The Sunset Advisory Commission has a long history evaluating licensing agencies, as the increase of
occupational regulation served as an impetus behind the creation of the commission in 1977. Since
then, the commission has completed more than 100 licensing agency reviews, documenting standards
to guide reviews of licensing agencies. While these standards provide a guide for evaluations, they are
not intended for blanket application. Sunset staff continues to refine and develop standards, reflecting
additional experience and different or changing needs, circumstances, or practices in licensing agencies.
The following material highlights areas where the board's statute and rules differ from model standards
and common practices by comparable agencies, and describes the potential benefits of conforming to
standard practices.
Findings
Nonstandard licensing and enforcement practices detract from
the board's ability to protect the public." Underutilization of national disciplinary data bank. Licensing agencies
should consult enforcement information compiled by national or federal
data banks to monitor disciplinary actions against practitioners licensed
or seeking licensure in Texas who are also licensed in other states. Federal
law requires each state dental board to report disciplinary actions to the
National Practitioner Data Bank.1 The data bank provides agencies the
information necessary to decide if licensees disciplined in other states
should be allowed to practice in Texas or if enforcement action is warranted
based on violations that reflect a practitioner's inability to safely perform
their job. The intent is to ensure a licensee's mobility cannot be used to
evade discipline.
Currently, all applicants for initial licensure must request a self-query from
the data bank and provide the results to the board, but these reports only
provide a snapshot of applicants' disciplinary history and are not updated
to reflect subsequent activity. Additionally, applicants for renewal must
only self-disclose disciplinary actions and do not submit data bank reports
to the board as confirmation. The cost of receiving continuous feedbackThe intent of
the data bank
is to ensure a
licensee's mobility
cannot be used to
evade discipline.State Board of Dental Examiners Staff Report with Final Results
Issue 433
Sunset Advisory Commission
June 2017
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Allensworth, Anne; Davis, Julie; Roberson, Dawn & Walraven, Joe. Staff Report with Final Results: State Board of Dental Examiners, report, June 2017; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1033191/m1/65/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.