The bill amends the Public Health Code to establish a health profession specialty field license for dentists who have completed advanced training and demonstrated competency in specific dental specialties. The specialties include prosthodontics, endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, oral pathology, and, starting September 1, 2022, oral medicine, orofacial pain, dental public health, oral and maxillofacial radiology, and dental anesthesiology. Dentists who held specialty certifications in these fields as of December 23, 2002, are considered to hold the corresponding health profession specialty field licenses and can renew them upon expiration.

Additionally, the bill introduces a new provision that, beginning January 1, 2026, prohibits dentists without a health profession specialty field license from representing themselves as dental specialists in areas where such licenses do not exist. The bill also clarifies that references to specialty certification in the Michigan Administrative Code will now refer to health profession specialty field licenses. The enactment of this bill is contingent upon the passage of House Bill No. 4594.

Statutes affected:
House Introduced Bill: 333.16608