Arkansas Orthodontist Forced to Relinquish License in Order to Immediately Expand Access to Affordable Dental Care

I need to explain what is going on with my licenses. I have dropped my federal lawsuit against the Arkansas state board of dentistry and I am voluntarily surrendering my Arkansas Orthodontic License this week. I will still have my Arkansas Dental License as well as various dental and orthodontic licenses in other states. I am still an orthodontists because I graduated from UT Memphis Orthodontic Residency in 2004 with an MS and an orthodontic certificate after getting my DDS from UT Memphis in 2001. I am dropping my speciality license in Arkansas to level the playing field. Meaning now that I’m “just a dentist” I can do anything I want just like the other primary care dentists who did not get any additional formal education after getting their DDS. The law in Arkansas is crazy and archaic and that was the point of the federal lawsuit. We will still work to change the law in the legislature this year but the lawsuit became an incredible burden. I am just one man and the state of Arkansas has more people and resources than I ever will. Anyway, 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. 

One final note – for years now I’ve had dozens if not hundreds of Arkansas’ primary care dentists tell me, “if you want to be able to do cleanings then you should drop your specialty license” because they believed there was no chance I would. Well I did – so I assume we are all buddies now that I’m one of them?