New dental Bill tabled
Proposed law will have stricter penalties for fake dentists
A NEW Bill to better regulate the dental profession and have strict penalties for fake dentists has been tabled.
The Dental Bill 2017 seeks to specify the duties and powers of the Malaysian Dental Council (MDC), including setting and approving qualifications, approving or rejecting registration, imposing fees and issuing certificates of practice.
It also seeks to set up the Malaysian Dental Therapist Board to register and issue certificates to dental and post-basic dental therapists, and regulate examinations for registration and standards of practice.
Presently, the Dental Act 1971 contains provisions for the MDC but once the new Bill is passed, the body will be dissolved to pave the way for one that follows the latest provisions.
The new Bill also contains stiffer penalties for a series of offences, which mostly deal with the issue of bogus dentists.
Unregistered persons found to be practising dentistry or impersonating dental practitioners will, for each offence, face a maximum fine of RM300,000 or jail term of not more than six years, or both.
The same penalty will apply to anyone who falsifies certificates of registration and practice, makes a fraudulent application for a certificate, or displays certificates before their names are included in the Dental Register or Dental Therapists Register.
The heavy penalty will also be imposed on those who appoint or enable the appointment of unregistered persons to conduct dental services, or practise in the same premises as them.
For persons convicted of impersonating a dental practitioner, should they continue to commit the offence, a further maximum fine of RM1,000 will be imposed for each day the offence is committed after conviction.
Dentists who falsely describe their vocation or continue practice without a valid certificate will be liable to a fine of not more than RM50,000 or jail term of not more than one year, or both.
Any dentist who knowingly practises with a person who does not have a valid certificate will also be fined a maximum RM20,000 or be jailed not more than six months, or both.
The move follows the controversy over several bogus dentists caught offering dental and orthodontic services or operating illegal dental clinics.
Last month, Nur Farahanis Ezatty Adli, 20, was fined RM70,000 and served six days of her one-month jail term for operating an unregistered private dental clinic in Melaka.
In May, 19-year-old Syidatul Hizlin Abd Hamid was fined RM40,000 in default of a year’s jail for providing unlicensed dental brace-fitting services at a homestay in Kuala Terengganu.
In January, Mohd Irwan Mohd Sudi, 25, was fined RM40,000 for offering to fit dental braces without approval for a man in Taman Indera Sempurna, Kuantan.