The Dental Profession

Chapter VI
The Dental Profession

Police Power and the Profession
• It is well established that the regulation of the
practice of dentistry is within the police power
of the state, subject to the limitation that the
enactment must be reasonable and have
some direct, real and substantial relation to
the protection of public health and welfare.
• The regulation of the dental profession is a
legitimate exercise of the police power of the
state.

• Through the instrumentality of the Board of
Dental Examiners, and the duly constituted
officers of the law, the Government sees to it
that the provisions of the Philippine Dental
Act are enforced, with a view to the
advancement of the dental profession and the
maintenance of ethical and technical
standards.

• The state regulation of the dental profession
may therefore be justified under the police
power of the state and in the exercise of this
power, the state has a right to prescribe
qualifications for the dental practitioners.

Prohibition against Illegal Practice
of Dentistry
• Persons who are not holders of valid
certificates of registration as dentist issued by
the Board of Dental Examiners are forbidden
to practice dentistry. (Act No. 593)
• Any person who practices dentistry in
disregard of this prohibition can render
himself liable for prosecution and to the
penalties provided by law.

Prohibition against Illegal Practice
of Dentistry
• This prohibition was re-stated by the
Philippine Dental Act of 1965, by providing
that “unless specifically exempt and
authorized by this Act, no person shall engage
in the practice of dentistry in the Philippines
without a certificate of registration as dentist
issued to him by the Board of Dental
Examiners after successfully passing the
required qualifying examination.

Right to Practice Dentistry
• The basis of the right to practice dentistry has
been clearly defined since the enactment of
the first Dental Law (Act No. 593)
• The basis of the right to practice dentistry is a
certificate of registration issued by the Board
of Dental Examiners.

Act No. 2462 expressly provided that only the
following persons may legally practice dentistry
anywhere in the Islands:
1. Any person who, upon the passage Act No.
2462, was registered in the official register of
the Board of Dental Examiners created under
Act No. 593;

2. Any undergraduate dentist who had
practiced as such for not less than three
years, provided that such person should
present his old certificate to the Board of
Dental Examiners established by Act No.
2462 within six months after the organization
of the Board and secure a certificate of
registration in accordance with said Act;

3. Any undergraduate dentist completing, after
the approval of Act No. 2462, three years of
practice as such, after having obtained a
certificate of registration from the Board of
Dental Examiners; and
4. Any undergraduate dentist who had
practiced as such for less than 3 years and
who had passed a postgraduate course in any
duly established dental college, after having
registered under Act No. 2462

• Dental Law of 1949
-provides that “unless exempt from
registration, no person shall practice
dentistry in the Philippines as defined in this
Act without holding a valid certificate of
registration as dentist issued by the Board of
Dental Examiners”

Unlawful Use of Title
• Under the Dental Law of 1949, any person who shall assume, use,
or advertise as a bachelor of dental surgery, doctor of dental
surgery, master of dental surgery, licentiate of dental surgery,
doctor of dental medicine, or dental surgeon, or append to his
name the letters B.D.S., D.D.S., M.D.S., L.D.S., or D.M.D. without
having been conferred such title or degree in a legally constituted
school, college, university, or board of examiners duly authorized
to confer the same, or advertise any title or description tending to
convey the impression that he is a dentist, without holding a valid
certificate of registration from the Board… shall be guilty of
misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to a fine of
not less than P1, 000.00 nor more than P5, 000.00 or to suffer
imprisonment for a period of not less than one year nor more
than five years, or both.

Unlawful Use of Title
• In the Philippine Dental Act of 1965, the
minimum fine of P1, 000.00 is increased to
P3, 000.00

Display of Dentist’s Name and
Certificate
• As early as the year 1903, every practitioner of
dentistry was required by law to display his
name in a conspicuous place upon the house
or office where he was practicing and his
certificate of registration, in his office in plain
sight of patients occupying his dental chair.

Certificate
• The Dental Law of 1949 broadened the
provisions of Act No. 2462 relating to the
display of the name and registration
certificate of every dental practitioner, by
further requiring the dentist’s health
certificate, likewise in his office in plain sight
of patients occupying his dental chair.

Certificate
• The Philippine Dental Act of 1965 re-stated
the provisions of the name and registration
certificate of every practicing dentist, but
eliminated the requirement as to the display
of the dentist’s health certificate.

Penalties for Violation of the Dental
Law
• The first Dental Law (Act No. 593), as a means
to compel obedience to its requirements,
provided penalties consisting of a fine of not
more than One Hundred Dollars and/or
imprisonment of not more than 90 days, but
these penalties were to be imposed only for
violation of the provisions of Section 11.

Law
• Act No. 2462 broadened the scope of the
offense punishable by the prescribed
penalties by providing that the fine and/or
imprisonment would be imposed not only for
unlawful advertising and fraudulent
assumption of titles but also for violation of
any other provisions of the act.
• The maximum limit of the fine and period of
imprisonment were also increased to
P1, 000.00 and one year, respectively.

Law
• The Dental Law of 1949 (Republic Act No. 417)
made P1, 000.00 the minimum of the fine and
one year, the minimum period of
imprisonment, and at the same time,
increased the maximum fine to P5, 000.00 and
the maximum period of imprisonment to five
years.

Law
• The Philippine Dental Act of 1965 repeated
the penalty provisions of the Dental Law of
1949, except with respect to the minimum of
the fine, which is increased from P1, 000.00 to
P3, 000.00

Practice of Dentistry by aliens
- Reciprocity Requirements
• The enactment of Act No. 3680 on October
16, 1930 ushered in a new policy designed to
protect Filipino dentists against possible
professional competition by foreign dentists
coming from a country that does not permit
practice of dentistry within its territory by
Filipino dentists on account of their
nationality.

• Act No. 3680
“no foreign dentists shall be admitted to
examination unless the country of which he is
a subject or citizen, permits Filipino dentists to
practice within its territorial limits.”

• Reciprocity
- derived from the Latin word reciprocus
(re=back, pro=forward)
- defined as a relation established by law,
treaty, or agreement between two countries
or states whereby each country or state grants
to the nationals or citizens of the other the
privilege of being admitted to the practice of
professions within their respective territorial
jurisdictions

• Philippine Spanish Treaty
- “Treaty on Mutual Recognition of the Validity
of Academic Degrees, the Mutual Accreditation
of Courses of Study in their Curricula and the
Reciprocal Treatment in the Exercise of
Professions Between the Philippines and Spain.”
- primary object is to remove the existing
barriers to the admission of Spanish citizens to
the practice of the established professions in
the Philippines

• Privileges of American citizens
Throughout the American regime in the
Philippines, American citizens had the same
rights and privileges in the practice of
professions as those enjoyed by Filipino citizens

• Republic Act No. 76
“existing laws or the provisions of existing laws
granting privileges, rights or exemptions to
citizens of the United States of America… are
hereby repealed unless they affect rights
already vested under the Provisions of the
Constitution or unless extended by any treaty,
agreement or convention between the Republic
of the Philippines and the United States of
America”

• Parity Amendments
-merely extend to American citizens whatever
privilege is give to Filipinos in the disposition,
exploitation, development, and utilization of all
agricultural, timber and mineral lands of the
public domain, waters, mineral, coal,
petroleum, and other mineral oils, all forces
and sources of energy, and other natural
resources of the Philippines, and the operation
of public utilities

Practice of Dentistry by Physicians
• In 1934, a bill was introduced in the Philippine legislature
designed to authorize physicians to practice dentistry
without their being required to take up the dental course,
and to entitle them to register as dentists without
examination.
• Dr. Gervasio Eraña – Manila dentist who led a group of
dentists that made vigorous representation against the bill,
together with UP School of Dentistry Dean Victorino G. Villa.
• The Eraña group succeeded in having the bill vetoed by
Governor General Frank Murphy by their central theme:
“There may be some benefits resulting from the approval of
the bill but certainly, the proposed law is inimical to the
public interest.”

Physician-dentist relationship
• In the early years of the dental profession in this
country, medical practitioners had been
professionally indifferent to the dentists. They never
believed in nor recognized the effective role, if any,
of dentistry in the general health of the people.
• Dr. Gervasio Eraña, in a medical convention held in
Baguio City, elucidated on his thesis that oral
infection and oral ill health are, in the ultimate
analysis, the causes of many systemic diseases.

• Jacobo Fajardo (Director of Health) and Dr. Intengan
(Assistant Director of Health) circularized the field
and all the health agencies under the Bureau of
Health about a health regulation newly prescribed by
the Bureau requiring prior mouth examination, in
cooperation of dental practitioners, in every case
where a diagnosis of a patient’s disease was to be
made.

Practice of Dentistry Defined
• Act No. 593
“A person shall be regarded as practicing
dentistry, within the meaning and intent of this
Act, who shall, for a fee, salary, or other reward,
paid to himself or to another person, perform
any operation or part of an operation upon the
human teeth or jaws, or who shall restore lost
teeth, jaws, or portions of jaws artificially, or
who shall treat diseases or lesions or correct
malpositions thereof…”

Exemption from Registration
2. Dentists or oral surgeons from other
countries who are invited for consultation or
demonstration, provided that in such cases
their work will be limited to the specific tasks
assigned to them and that a previous
authority has been granted by the Board of
Dental Examiners

• Section 8 of Act No. 2462
- deleted from the scope of dental practice, the
professional authority of the dentist to “restore
lost teeth, jaws, or portions of jaws artificially.”
-authorized the dentists to perform an operation
not only upon human teeth or jaws, but also upon
the human mouth and surrounding tissues. The
law also clarified the professional authority of a
dentist to treat diseases or lesions by specifying
that he can only treat oral diseases or lesions.

• Philippine Dental Law of 1965 (RA 4419)
- omitted the dentist’s authority to treat oral
diseases and lesions but instead, empowered
him to “prescribe drugs or medicines for the
treatment of oral diseases and lesions
• According to the aforecited provisions of the
Dental Law, there are three basic dental
services which are circumscribed by the term
“practice of dentistry”, namely…

1. Performing an operation, or part of an
operation, upon the human mouth, jaws,
teeth, and surrounding tissues;
2. Prescribing drugs or medicines for the
treatment of oral diseases and lesions; and
3. Correcting malpositions of the teeth

The provision defining the scope of dental
practice, however, does not apply to the ff.
classes of persons:
1. Artisans or technicians engaged in the
mechanical construction of artificial dentures
or fixtures and other oral devices, as long as
none of the procedures is done inside the
mouth of the patient;
2. Students of dentistry undergoing practical
training in a legally constituted dental school

or college under the direction or supervision of
a member of the faculty who is licensed to
practice dentistry in the Philippines; and
3. Registered dental hygienists serving as
dentist’s assistants who may be allowed to
perform oral prophylaxis and such other
procedures which the law regulating the
practice of dental hygienists may permit

Prerequisite to Practice
• Unless specifically exempt and authorized by
the Dental Law, no person is permitted to
engage in the practice of dentistry in the
Philippines without a certificate of registration
as dentist issued to him by the Board of Dental
Examiners, and such certificate may be
obtained by an applicant only after passing the
required qualifying examination given by the
Board.

Registration Required
• Qualification in the dentist examination is not
enough to entitle a person to the right to
practice dentistry in the Philippines. Before a
successful candidate in the dentist examination
may legally engage in the practice of dentistry,
he must first register with the Board of Dental
Examiners and secure from it a certificate of
registration as a dentist.

Age Requirement
• Although no minimum age is required of
applicants for admission to the dentist
examination, the Dental Law, however,
provides that no certificate of registration as
dentist will be issued to any candidate who
qualified in the examination unless he has
reached the age of twenty-one years.

Registration as a dentist under the Dental Law is
not required of:
1. Commissioned dental officers of the army,
navy and air forces of any foreign country
whose operations in the Philippines are
permitted by the Government, while rendering
service for the members of the said forces
only.

2. Dentists or oral surgeons from other
countries who are invited for consultation or
demonstration, provided that in such cases
their work will be limited to the specific tasks
assigned to them and that a previous
authority has been granted by the Board of
Dental Examiners.

Issuance of Certificate
• Certificates of Registration as dentists are
issued by the Board of Dental Examiners to
applicants who have passed the dentist
examination and have satisfactorily met the
requirements prescribed by the Dental Law for
the issuance of such certificate, and upon
payment of the required registration fee.
• No certificate will be issued to any applicant
who has not reached the age of twenty-one
years.

Form of Registration Certificate
• Every registration certificate of a dentist has
the ff:
1.Full name of the registrant
2.Serial number
3.Signed by Chairman and members of the
Board, the Commission of Civil Service, and
the Secretary of the Board
4.Board’s official seal for authentication

Temporary Certificate
The Board of Dental Examiners had been
authorized by law to issue a temporary
certificate of registration to practice dentistry
in the Philippines under certain conditions and
limitations provided by the Dental Law
• Republic Act No. 417 (Dental Law of 1949)
Eliminated the provision concerning the
issuance of temporary certificates of
registration as dentist

• Republic Act No. 4419 (Dental Law of 1965)
the Board of Dental Examiners is again
empowered to issue a sort of temporary
certificate, but of a very limited scope
The temporary certificate is in the form of a
temporary permit or prior authority granted
by the Board to dentists or oral surgeons
invited to the Philippines from other
countries for consultation or demonstration
The duration of the authority must not
exceed thirty days.

The Dentist’s Oath
• Consistently observed as a requisite ceremony
to mark the formal admission of newly
registered dentists to the practice of the
dental profession in the Philippines
Oath – all forms of attestation by which a party
signifies that he is bound in conscience to
perform the act faithfully and truly.

Refusal to Issue Certificate
The Board of Dental Examiners will refuse to
issue a certificate of registration as a dentist
to:
1. Any person convicted by a court of
competent jurisdiction of any criminal offense
involving moral turpitude, and to any person
guilty of immoral or dishonorable conduct; or
2. To persons of unsound mind; or
3. Those suffering from communicable or
contagious diseases

Replacement of Certificate
• A new certificate of registration as dentist to
replace any certificate that is lost, destroyed,
or mutilated, may be issued by the Board of
Dental Examiners, subject to the rules of the
Board.

Annual Registration
Every practicing dentist is required to register
annually with the Secretary of the Boards of
Examiners.
An annual registration card is issued to every
applicant who has filed the requisite application
and paid the prescribed annual registration fee.
Dentists in the government service are also
required to pay the annual registration fee as
provided in Section 3 of Republic Act No. 465

Revocation of Certificates
• Act No. 593 provided only four causes for
revocation of certificates, namely:
1.Conviction of the registered dentist by a
competent court of any criminal offense;
2.Being guilty of immoral or dishonorable
conduct
3.Being of unsound mind;
4.Being guilty of unprofessional conduct

The additional causes provided by Act No. 2462 for the
revocation of registration certificates are as follows:
1. Malpractice
2. Incompetency, serious ignorance, and malicious
negligence in the practice of dentistry
3. Willful destruction or mutilation of a natural tooth of a
person with the deliberate purpose of substituting the
same by an unnecessary or unessential artificial tooth.
4. Making use of fraud, deceit, or false statements to
obtain a certificate of registration
5. Habitual use of intoxicating liquors or medicines
causing them to become incompetent to practice
dentistry

6. Employment of persons who are not duly authorized
to do the work that under the law can only be done
by registered dentists
7. Employment of deceit or any other fraud with the
public in general or some client in particular, for the
purpose of extending his clientele
8. Making false advertisements, publishing or
circulating fraudulent or deceitful allegations
regarding his professional attainments, skills or
knowledge, or the methods of treatment employed
by him

• The Dental Law of 1949 provided an
additional ground upon which a dentist
certificate of registration might be revoked,
namely: suffering from communicable or
contagious diseases

Reissuance of Revoked Certificate
• The Board of Dental Examiners may, after the
expiration of five years from the date of
revocation of a dentist certificate of
registration, for reasons it may deem
sufficient, entertain an application of a dentist
whose registration certificate was revoked, in
the same manner as receiving an application
for an original certificate, but in so doing, the
Board may, in its discretion, exempt the
applicant from taking another examination.

Development of Dental Code of
Ethics
• The Board of Dental Examiners was vested with
authority to exercise the powers conferred upon it by
law, with a view to the maintenance of efficient ethical
and technical standards in the dental profession.
• Pursuant to this authority, the Board of Dental
Examiners, on March 14, 1930, promulgated for the
first time a code of ethics for the dental profession by
making the Code of Ethics adopted by the American
Dental Association as the code of ethics to govern the
conduct of dentists in the Philippine Islands.

Practice of Dental Hygienist
Dental Hygienist – a person who, with or without
compensation, removes calcific deposits, accretion
and stains from the exposed surfaces of the teeth,
performs surface application of medicaments for the
prevention and control of dental caries, or does
other helpful duties in the reception and care of
patients, in the sterilization of instruments, and in
rendering assistance to the dentist at the chair or
laboratory

Practice of Dental Technician
Dental Technician – engaged in the mechanical
construction of artificial dentures or fixtures
and other oral devices, as long as none of such
procedures is done inside the mouth of the
patient

Achievements in Dentistry
• Capitan Chencheng – the first Filipino dentist expert in carving
tooth and plate on a single ivory piece
• Gregorio R. Mateo – devised and introduced “infiltration
anesthesia” (consists of procaine hydrochloride and adrenalin
- also invented gold-porcelain fixed bridge in place of
caoutchouc denture (principal constituent of natural
rubber, sometimes called pure rubber)
• Juanito Arevalo – contributed Basibaro, an astringent
mouthwash made of lime, betel leaf and betel nut
- also introduced gold-foil filling
• Antonio de Asis – introduced a kind of general anesthesia
called somnigen and used it for anesthesizing his patients
submitting to tooth extraction

New dental materials, equipments, techniques and
procedures introduced in this country by Bienvenido B.
Eraña:
• Analgesor that uses a colorless gas Nitrous oxide on
the principle of analgesia (insensibility or inability to
feel pain)
• Vitallium – cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy
• The use of cavitron in oral prophylaxis. Cavitron is the
trade name of the equipment invented for removing
tartar of calcareous deposits on surfaces of the teeth.
• The use of Page-Chayes handpiece (150, 000
revolutions per minute)

• The use of Borden high-speed handpiece (300, 000 –
350, 000 revolutions per minute)
• The turbo-jet, another type of high-speed dental
instrument, the driving force of which is not air but
water.
• New procedures on rubber impression and gingival
retraction.
• The use of dielock trays and disposable needles.
• The use of splints, provisional acrylic-resin jacket
crowns for restorative dentistry

Enforcement of the Dental Act
• Act No. 593 – merely empowered the Board of Dental
Examiners to make rules and regulations
• Act No. 2462 – merely provided that the Board of
Dental Examiners may, with the approval of the
Director of Health and the Secretary of the Interior,
approve rules and regulations
• Act No. 2602 – divested the Board of the rule-making
power
• Act No. 2711 (Administrative Code) – the power to
promulgate regulations necessary to carry the
provisions of the Dental Law into effect was restored to
the Board of Dental Examiners.

• Republic Act No. 417 vested the Board of Dental
Examiners the authority to :
- promulgate rules and regulations and to enforce or
carry out the provisions of Dental Law
- investigate the violations of the Dental Law
- inspect dental schools and other establishments to
see if the laws relating to dentistry are enforced
- discharge other duties as the Board may deem
necessary for the maintenance of efficient ethical
and technical standards of the dental profession in
the Philippines, for the well-being of the public and
safeguarding of life and health

End of Chapter VI
Presented By:
Barapon, Ma. Hermie Culeen F.
Bashir, Emtithal
Ibrahim, Mohammed
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING! 

Sources:
• Robles, Gonzalo S. A History Of Dentistry. Professionals Pub.
Co., 1968. pg. 178-227

The Dental Profession

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