As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise: (1) “Board” means the Kentucky Board of Dentistry;
(2) “Certified dental technician” means an individual recognized as such by the
National Board for Certification in Dental Laboratory Technology;
(3) “Delegated duties list” means the list of procedures authorized in administrative regulation which may be delegated by a dentist licensed under this chapter to a licensed dental hygienist or a registered dental assistant;
(4) “Dental auxiliary personnel” means any staff member of a dental office not licensed by or registered with the board;
(5) “Dental hygiene” means the treatment of the oral cavity, including but not limited to dental hygiene assessment or screening, scaling and root planing, nonsurgical therapy, removing calcareous deposits, removing accumulated accretion from beneath the free gingival margin, cavity preventive procedures, periodontal procedures that require administering antimicrobial agents along with other general dentistry activities outlined in the treatment care plan and not prohibited by this chapter or by administrative regulation promulgated by the board;
(6) “Dental hygienist” means any person who has graduated from a CODA accredited dental hygiene program at an institute of higher learning and has been credentialed as a “Registered Dental Hygienist”;
(7) “Dental laboratory” includes any person, firm, or corporation other than a licensed dentist, who directly or through an agent or employee, by any means or method, in any way supplies or manufactures artificial substitutes for the natural teeth, other than those unfinished substitutes normally available through dental supply houses, or who furnishes supplies, constructs, or reproduces or repairs any prosthetic denture, bridge, or appliance to be worn in the human mouth or who performs or offers or undertakes to perform or accomplish dental laboratory technology;
(8) “Dental laboratory technician” means any person who performs or offers or undertakes to perform or accomplish dental laboratory technology;
(9) “Dental specialist” means a dentist who practices in fields of specialty recognized and approved by the American Dental Association;
(10) “Dentist” means any person who has graduated from a Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) accredited dental school and has been conferred with the degree of “Doctor of Medical Dentistry” (D.M.D.) or “Doctor of Dental Surgery” (D.D.S.);
(11) “Dentistry” means the evaluation, diagnosis, prevention, or surgical, nonsurgical, or related treatment of diseases, disorders, or conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area, or the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body provided by a dentist within the scope of his or her education, training, and experience and in accordance with the ethics of the profession and applicable law. Any person shall be regarded as “practicing dentistry” who, for a fee, salary, or other reward paid, or to be paid either to himself or herself, or to another person, performs or advertises to perform, dental operations of any kind, including the
whitening of natural or manufactured teeth, or who diagnoses or treats diseases or lesions of human teeth or jaws, or attempts to correct malpositions thereof, or who diagnoses or treats disorders, or deficiencies of the oral cavity and adjacent associated structures, or who takes impressions of the human teeth or jaws to be used directly in the fabrication of any intraoral appliance, or shall construct, supply, reproduce or repair any prosthetic denture, bridge, artificial restoration, appliance or other structure to be used or worn as a substitute for natural teeth, except upon the written laboratory procedure work order of a licensed dentist and constructed upon or by the use of casts or models made from an impression taken by a licensed dentist, or who shall advertise, offer, sell, or deliver any such substitute or the services rendered in the construction, reproduction, supply, or repair thereof to any person other than a licensed dentist, or who places or adjusts such substitute in the oral cavity of another, or who uses the words “dentist,” “dental surgeon,” the letters “D.D.S.,” “D.M.D.,” or other letters or title in connection with his or her name, which in any way represents him or her as being engaged in the practice of dentistry;
(12) “Direct supervision” means that the dentist is physically present in the dental office or treatment facility, personally diagnoses the condition to be treated, authorizes the procedures to be performed, remains in the dental office or treatment facility while the procedures are being performed, and evaluates the performance of the individual supervised;
(13) “General supervision” means a circumstance of treatment in which a dentist licensed under this chapter must diagnose and authorize the work to be performed on a patient by the dental hygienist authorized pursuant to administrative regulation to work under general supervision but the dentist is not required to be on the premises while the treatment is carried out;
(14) “Registered dental assistant” means any person who is registered with the board and works under the direct supervision of a dentist;
(15) “Telehealth” means the use of interactive audio, video, or other electronic media to deliver health care. It includes the use of electronic media for diagnosis, consultation, treatment, transfer of health or medical data, and continuing education; and
(16) “Volunteer community health setting” means a setting in which services are rendered at no charge to the patient or to third-party payors.
Effective: July 15, 2010
History: Repealed and reenacted 2010 Ky. Acts ch. 85, sec. 1, effective July 15, 2010. –
– Amended 2009 Ky. Acts ch. 55, sec. 1, effective June 25, 2009. — Amended 1978
Ky. Acts ch. 155, sec. 162, effective June 17, 1978. — Amended 1974 Ky. Acts ch.
303, sec. 1. — Amended 1970 Ky. Acts ch. 75. sec. 1. — Amended 1964 Ky. Acts ch.
12, sec. 1. — Amended 1950 Ky. Acts ch. 139, sec. 1. — Amended 1948 Ky. Acts ch.
6, sec. 1. — Created 1942 Ky. Acts ch. 60, sec. 1. — Recodified 1942 Ky. Acts ch.
208, sec. 1, effective October 1, 1942, from Ky. Stat. secs. 2636-11, 2636-18.
Legislative Research Commission Note (7/15/2010). Under the authority of KRS
7.136(1), the Reviser of Statutes has changed the internal numbering of this statute to place definitions in alphabetical order. No words were changed in this process.