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An Easy Call (Editorial)

2 min read

Sometimes, the right action for government to take isn’t clear. Sometimes, ambiguities and nuances make judgment difficult.

Sometimes, however, the right choice just isn’t that hard.

That’s the case with the controversy involving Dr. Ben Burris of Fayetteville, who earlier this month surrendered his orthodontic license and ended his 18-month legal battle with the state of Arkansas over his effort to be allowed to provide general dentistry services to his patients.

Burris, an entrepreneurial sort, owns Braces by Burris, a chain of 20 orthodontic practices in Arkansas. The Arkansas Dental Practice Act prevented him from offering his patients dentistry services such as teeth-cleaning because, the act holds, orthodontists can’t provide any services outside their specialization, even though they are licensed dentists and have received the same training as dentists.

So Burris, of his own volition, gave up his orthodontic license “to level the playing field,” as he commented on ArkansasBusiness.com, going on to add, “now that I don’t have a specialty license I will be able to oversee hygienists rendering free and affordable cleanings and X-rays and I’ll be able to do dental exams. It’s ironic that I had to make myself ‘less qualified’ to legally render this most basic care but that’s how it works in an industry controlled by a protectionist cartel.”

In giving up his legal fight against the Arkansas Board of Dental Examiners, Burris said he’ll be continuing the effort to change the Dental Practice Act in the Arkansas Legislature.

Stories on ArkansasBusiness.com about the controversy have generated more comment than perhaps any other news article, and commenters are almost universally in agreement: Preventing orthodontists from providing basic dental care is absurd, anticompetitive and a disservice to the public.

Well, yes. Yes, it is. Can we get an “amen,” lawmakers?

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