A 5-year review of state dental board disciplinary actions

State dental board disciplinary records provide insight into professional misconduct, yet variability in reporting and limited multistate analyses constrain their use for prevention and education. This study examined the frequency, co-occurrence, and temporal patterns of dental disciplinary actions and penalties across multiple US states over 5 years.

Publicly available disciplinary records from 9 US state dental boards with complete data from 2017 through 2021 were reviewed. Violations, penalties, state-level distributions, temporal trends, and pairwise associations between violations were analyzed, using descriptive statistics and the χ² or Fisher exact test.

A total of 901 disciplinary cases were identified. Gross negligence (37.74%), incomplete documentation (21.31%), and failure to meet continuing education requirements (18.31%) were the most frequent violations. Pairwise association analysis showed significant association among administrative violations, particularly between incomplete documentation and lack of informed consent. High-severity clinical violations, including gross negligence, overtreatment, and failure to refer, also showed significant co-occurrence. Monetary fines (89.79%) and probation (63.82%) were the most common penalties, with substantial variation in penalty application across states. Overall case counts declined sharply in 2020 and partially rebounded in 2021, whereas violations related to controlled substance prescribing decreased steadily after 2018.

Dental disciplinary actions during the study period were dominated by preventable clinical and administrative failures, with consistent co-occurrence of related violations and marked interstate heterogeneity.

These findings highlight the importance of standardized reporting and targeted preventive strategies to support patient safety and professional accountability.