Dentist Regulations for Dental Botox

State Legal Requirements for Botox Dentists

John Bitting, Esq, is legal counsel for DOCS Education. Here, he answers this question: “What regulatory issues does dental Botox present?"

• Please visit website to view premium content

  (MP3)

• Please visit website to view premium content

  (PDF)
• Trouble viewing the video? Click here

Please visit website to view premium content

“Botox is another part of the dentist’s armamentarium that’s growing very fast,” says John. “It’s growing much faster than the states’ regulations can keep up with it, and it’s another situation where it’s not quite as diverse regulatorily speaking as sedation dentistry regulations are, but it is a situation where the boards—no board has promulgated a Botox regulation. The boards have only been issuing policies regarding Botox administration in their state. And these policies, while providing some guidance, do not provide a method by which the dentist can really be held accountable under the regulations and the laws of the state. Most of them basically are allowing the general dentists to administer Botox to their patients as long as they have had some formal training.

“And if anything goes wrong, they will look to the training, and nothing seems to go wrong with Botox. It seems they have a very wide margin for error, but some states say that only oral surgeons can do it, but the boards are—there’s nothing really with any teeth for them to enforce it. It’s a situation that is going to continue to evolve, and you may see some regulations regarding it, but right now, there aren’t any. The board will just look towards the dentist having training.”

John Bitting, Esq., is legal counsel for DOCS Education. He is an expert on legal issues surrounding sedation dentistry and dental marketing. Learn more at SedationRegulations.com.