Request By:
William B. Worthington, D.M.D.
President
Kentucky Board of Dentistry
1210 Heyburn Building
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; John Stephen Kirby, Assistant Attorney General; Counsel to Kentucky Board of Dentistry
This letter is in reply to your letter of June 22, 1982, concerning extended-duty dental assistants.
Your inquiry concerned what duties an "extended duty dental assistant" may perform. By statute there is no definition of an extended-duty dental assistant. The only reference to assistants in the Dental Act is in KRS 313.243. That provision requires the dentist, on demand of the secretary of the Dental Board, to furnish the board with the names and addresses of the individuals assisting him in his practice and identify in what capacity they are assisting him. No statutory authority is granted to a dentist to delegate any of the duties, which are defined in KRS 313.010(2) as constituting the practice of dentistry. Nor is the board authorized by statute to allow delegation of authority by dentists of acts defined in KRS 313.010(2). Absent statutory authority neither the board, nor an individual dentist, can delegate those items constituting the practice of dentistry, as defined in KRS 313.010(2), to anyone other than a licensed dentist. Without statutory authority neither can the board delegate such authority by regulation. It is understood that this response in no way limits, nor expands, the definitions of dental hygiene, dental laboratory, dental laboratory technician or commercial dental laboratory bevond or within the specific definition of those terms contained in KRS 313.010.