Receiving a complaint from the Dental Board is not a pleasant experience. Having your professional competency or ethics called into question is frustrating and stressful. This frustration often comes hand-in-hand with feelings of uncertainty about how to respond to the complaint and worry about what are its possible implications for your dental license.
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You do not have to go it alone. The seasoned dental license defense attorneys at Lype, Dest, and Smith can help a dentist understand the Dental Board’s process, learn the potential risks posed by different types of complaints, and help them respond in a way that increases the odds of a dismissal, or, if Board action is unavoidable, minimizes any damage.
Drawn from our long record of success defending dentists before the Texas Dental Board, this article tries to answer some of the most common questions dentists have when they receive a complaint. Please note this article is not legal advice and should not be used as such. Every case is different and the only way to obtain sound legal advice is to consult with a dental license defense attorney. In fact, if there is one thing to take away from this article, it is the importance of speaking with an attorney promptly and before responding to the Board.
Around one thousand complaints are filed with the Texas Dental Board every year. Anyone can file a complaint: A patient, family member, colleague, competitor, a disgruntled employee, insurer, the Texas Medicaid program, etc…. It is extremely easy to file a complaint. The Board allows complaints to be filed in multiple ways including by submitting a short form by email.
As long as the complaint alleges something that, if true, would violate the Dental Practice Act or the Board’s rules, the Board is required to conduct an investigation. Something as simple as a patient complaining that they were over diagnosed, over charged, or received a deficient restoration is sufficient to trigger a Board investigation.
In rare cases the dentist will first learn of a complaint through a surprise visit by a Board investigator. The Board typically reserves this approach to situations where they are concerned that providing advanced notice might compromise their ability to gather evidence or witness statements.
In a majority of cases, the dentist will become aware of a complaint through a letter sent to their practice or home address. The letter will come from a Dental Board investigator and will briefly describe the complaint, request a long list of documents, and recite which Board statutes and rules the allegations would violate if they are substantiated. If the complaint involves a patient, the Board’s letter will identify them. The letter will also ask the dentist to provide a narrative responding to the complaint.
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The list of documents requested by the Board can be lengthy and will usually include a demand that the dentist provide:
The letter will ask that the dentist submit these records under a business records affidavit.
Note that many of the documents listed above—such as the dentist’s recent continuing education hours—may be irrelevant to the allegations in the complaint. The Dental Board asks for these documents anyway as it treats an investigation as an opportunity to audit a dentist’s compliance with various Board rules. This includes compliance with CE requirements, having a written emergency plan, and ensuring they and their personnel have current life-support certifications.
The Dental Board cannot reveal the identity of the complainant or provide a copy of the complaint. These are both confidential by law.
The complaint notice sent to the dentist will include a deadline for them or their attorney to submit a response. In our experience this deadline can often be extended by communicating with the assigned investigator.
Once the Board investigator receives the dentist’s response and the requested documents, they may ask for additional information. The investigator will also try to obtain relevant documents and evidence from the complainant and any other knowledgeable persons. In cases involving a standard of care allegation, the Board investigator will typically request records from other dentists who treated the patient before and after they were treated by the dentist targeted in the complaint.
If the alleges a violation of the standard of care, the Board is legally obligated to have the case reviewed by an outside dentist. The reviewing dentist is given a copy of the patient’s records along with any response filed by the dentist or their attorney. After evaluating this information, the reviewer issues an expert report containing their opinions on the care and whether they believe any Board rules were violated.
Dental Board investigations can take a long time, particularly if they require review by an outside dentist. It is not uncommon for a case to remain unresolved for a year or more after the filing of the complaint.
Once the investigation is finished and any expert reports have been received, the Board will make an internal decision on how to proceed. In a best-case scenario, the Board will decide no violations have occurred and dismiss the complaint. In most cases, however, the dentist will either be invited to an informal conference or given the option of accepting a proposed settlement.
Essentially an informal conference is a meeting between the dentist, their attorney, and several Board members and Board attorneys. The intent is to provide the dentist with an opportunity to respond to the allegations and allow the Board members to ask questions. At the end of the conference, the Board members will make a recommendation which could be anything from a dismissal, a disciplinary order, or a non-disciplinary Remedial Plan.
If an informal conference does not lead to a resolution, the next step will be for a Board attorney to set the case for a trial before an administrative law judge at the State Office of Administrative Hearings. This is also its own topic and outside the scope of this article.
If you receive notice of a Dental Board complaint, your best course of action is to quickly consult with a defense attorney. A dental board defense attorney from Lype, Dest & Smith can help talk you through the complaint and the Board’s process and help achieve a good result.
Contact us at (512) 881-3556 to discuss your case.
Not afraid to go to court when necessary, Dan has successfully litigated cases all the way to the Supreme Court of Texas. Dan also prides himself on being readily available to clients throughout their cases. He strongly believes effective representation should be a collaborative effort between a client and their attorney. Years of experience: 15 years
Dan Lype
Bar number: 24065658
Location: Austin, TX
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