Louisiana Administrative Code
Title 46 - PROFESSIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL STANDARDS
Part XXXIII - Dental Health Profession
Chapter 9 - Formal Adjudication
Section XXXIII-903 - Initiation of Proceedings

A. When determined by the president that a formal adjudication is warranted, proceedings to adjudicate an administrative enforcement action shall be initiated by serving the complaint filed in accordance with §905 of this Chapter. Service of the complaint on the licensee may be accomplished by personal delivery to the licensee by an agent of the board, or delivery by certified U.S. Mail return receipt requested or courier at the most current mailing address of the licensee as indicated in the official records of the board. This complaint may be signed by either the president or a board member or employee designated by the president. Said notice shall name the accused licensee as respondent.

B. If the public health, safety, and/or welfare imperatively requires emergency action, the board, through its president, may order an interim suspension of a dental or dental hygiene license pending formal disciplinary proceedings, as provided in R.S. 49:961(C). The president shall appoint one or more board members to hear the evidence in support of an immediate interim suspension and to make recommendations to the board president, who shall thereafter issue whatever order of interim suspension pending formal adjudication as is warranted by the circumstances.

C. When determined by the president that a formal adjudication is warranted, the board president shall appoint a committee of three or more board members to hear and rule on the charges. This committee is referred to as the Disciplinary Committee, and no board member who served on the Disciplinary Oversight Committee during the investigatory phase of the matter being brought to formal adjudication shall be eligible to serve on the Disciplinary Committee. The board president and any member of the board residing in the same board electoral district as the individual charged shall be ineligible to sit as a member of the Disciplinary Committee. The president shall appoint one member of the Disciplinary Committee to serve as its chairman.

D. If for any reason, through recusal or otherwise, there are not enough board members to form a three-person Disciplinary Committee, the board president may appoint any Louisiana licensed dentists and/or hygienists to serve on the Disciplinary Committee. The only restriction on the licensees to be appointed is that their home address in the board records not be within the same board electoral district as the home address of the licensee being investigated, if the subject of the investigation is a licensee.