Toothy loophole

During an appointment, a dental assistant did not respect my personal space. She touched me and hugged me a number of times. I reported this to the dentist, but nothing was done. I stopped going to this practice.

I contacted the Florida Board of Dentistry and was told that it does not take complaints. It referred me the Florida Board of Health, which said that it licenses only dentists and hygienists, not dental assistants. There is no oversight of dental assistants across the state. The Florida Dental Assistants Association sent me an email saying that this, indeed, is the case and that it, too, is concerned.

Many in the dental industry don’t know about this loophole. How can an ordinary patient even begin to know?

This story was originally published September 1, 2016 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Toothy loophole."