Feds Rule State Dental Board Illegally Stifled Competition

[MrBogosity]

Feds Rule State Dental Board Illegally Stifled Competition

You don't need to be a dentist to whiten teeth, FTC says

Highlights:

In early December, the Federal Trade Commission voted that the North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners had stifled competition illegally by excluding non-dentists from providing teeth-whitening services or products to consumers.

The commission's Final Order upholds (with minor changes) a July 2011 decision by Chief Administrative Law Judge D. Michael Chappell that requires the dental board to "cease ordering non-dentists to stop providing teeth whitening products or services." The order also requires the board "to stop informing non-dentist teeth whitening providers and certain other persons that it is illegal for non-dentists to perform teeth whitening products or services."

Over the past decade, cosmetic teeth whitening has become increasingly popular and more widely available at day spas, mall kiosks, salons, and other non-dental office settings. State regulators have stepped up enforcement actions against non-dentists for what regulators consider practicing dentistry without a license.

Joyce Osborn, president and founder of the Alabama-based Council for Cosmetic Teeth Whitening, a trade association, told Carolina Journal that the issue is not about public health or safety, or even a concern that non-dentists are motivated only by financial self-interest, as the N.C. dental board asserts. Osborn says dentists want to maintain a lucrative monopoly and protect their own revenues from lower-cost competitors. Dentists charge as much as $300 to $700 per treatment, whereas some non-dentists offer the service for less than $100.

Osborn, who invented and markets an FDA-cleared teeth-whitening system, says she's battled the N.C. dental board and other state boards for several years. "That's why I founded the council," Osborn said, "to inform and help members on issues of safety, training, best practices, and appropriate marketing."

The FTC's complaint against the N.C. dental board is the first of its kind in the nation. It contends that the practice of allowing professions and occupations to be regulated solely by state occupational licensing boards comprised of a majority of the licensees of the profession is anti-competitive and exclusionary because those members have a financial conflict of interest. When members of such a licensing board enforce the state's Dental Practice Act, they are engaging in a conspiracy that violates federal antitrust laws.

Other interesting questions hinge on the scope of court decisions and whether the ultimate decision in the teeth-whitening case is broad enough to affect other state monopolies.

It's about time someone started challenging these corporate monopolists masquerading as protectors of the public. Optimistically, this could spell the end for state licensing, but pessimistically this could mean an even bigger grab of Federal power over states and extending the Federal government's reach into the economy.

[FSBlueApocalypse]

I'll take option #2

[Lord T Hawkeye]

Could this be a sign of what Stef predicted?  Now that state dependants are starting to become liabilities rather than assets, the state is gonna start cutting them loose.

[kiri2tsubasa]

...huh.  Considering the number of commercials I see on TV about whiting strips (Crest and other brands) I had no idea that competition is being stifled.  Speaking of Crest white strips they 'work', but for me it took almost a month and a half to get noticeable results.

[MrBogosity]

...huh.  Considering the number of commercials I see on TV about whiting strips (Crest and other brands) I had no idea that competition is being stifled.  Speaking of Crest white strips they 'work', but for me it took almost a month and a half to get noticeable results.

It's legal to do it yourself, but not to do it for someone else and charge money. Then, all of a sudden, you need a government license to keep the whole thing from melting your teeth or exploding or something.