New South Wales Consolidated Acts

DENTAL PRACTICE ACT 2001 - SECT 20

20 Registration necessary for certain representations

(1) A person must not indicate that the person carries out dental auxiliary activities or is qualified to carry out dental auxiliary activities unless the person is registered as a dental auxiliary of a class for which those activities are prescribed by the regulations as authorised activities.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units.

(2) Without limiting the ways in which a person may be taken to have indicated that the person is qualified to carry out dental auxiliary activities or that the person carries out dental auxiliary activities, a person is taken to have so indicated if the person uses:

(a) any name, initials, word, title, symbol or description that (having regard to the circumstances in which it is used) indicates, or is capable of being understood to indicate, or is calculated to lead a person to infer, that the person is qualified to carry out dental auxiliary activities or that the person carries out dental auxiliary activities, or

(b) the titles “dental therapist”, “dental hygienist”, “dental auxiliary” or any name, title or description prescribed by the regulations either generally or for a class of dental auxiliaries.

(3) This section does not apply to a registered dentist.

Note: Section 10AF of the Public Health Act 1991 prohibits the carrying out of restricted dental practices by persons who are not registered dentists, medical practitioners or certain other persons in specified circumstances (including dental auxiliaries).