The Board welcomes questions on its operations and the related laws and rules, and works hard to answer them in a timely manner. But depending on the question, there are several reasons it may not always provide precise answers. First, the Board must always stay within the limits of authority the legislature gave it, and some questions can inadvertently push the Board beyond those limits. For example, complete answers can end up amounting to advisory opinions, and our legislature hasn’t given us the authority to issue advisory opinions. Second, the Board must avoid making policy statements that could be seen as expanding the scopes of practice. The Board cannot expand scopes of practices in that way; scopes of practice can only be expanded by formal rulemaking. Another reason is that oftentimes your particular circumstances must be taken into account—and while you might share the circumstances you believe are important, you might unintentionally leave out key factors. Because the Board does not know all your circumstances, it must take care not to inadvertently provide an answer that might be misleading. Finally, determining how laws apply to your circumstances can amount to legal advice—and because the Board is not an attorney, it cannot provide you with legal advice. With all that said, we still welcome your inquiries, will work to provide you with helpful information, and trust that you understand our limitations.  

Because the Board staff is limited to a single employee and a part-time contractor, it is often not able to immediately answer phone calls. We encourage to you please send a message to info@nddentalboard.org or leave a voice mail at 701-258-8600 and we will reach back out to you promptly.