Continuing a skirmish over the way dentists can practice in schools, the Louisiana Senate on June 10 passed a bill pushing the state's dental board to finalize regulations on mobile dentistry.
But the Senate's Health and Welfare Committee had already amended the bill to remove a controversial clause providing grounds to dismiss the entire Louisiana State Board of Dentistry if it missed a January 1, 2011, deadline.
The bill that passed the Senate 36-1 sets that deadline, but it doesn't impose any consequences if the board hasn't finalized rules by then.
The bill now returns to its author, Rep. Fred Mills (D-St. Martinville), who must decide whether he can live with the defanged version of the legislation. If he can, the bill will go before the House, then to Gov. Bobby Jindal for final passage. If he can't, the two chambers of the Legislature will form a conference committee to create a compromise bill. The bill would then go back to both chambers for final votes.
Mills did not respond to phone calls requesting a comment.
Behind the controversy is a long-running dispute between the Louisiana Dental Association, which worked last year to ban dentists from treating patients on school campuses, and dentists who specialize in just that.
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