BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s community of denturists — specialists in making dentures and prosthetics — is speaking out against a bill that would dissolve their independent regulatory board and place them under the state Board of Dentistry.
The pushback came during an active House Health and Welfare Committee hearing on Monday, where denturists from across the state testified against the proposal.
WATCH | Hear the testimony from Monday's committee hearing—
“The most common sense thing here is, it’s just a conflict of interest,” said Robbert Van Giffen of First Class Dentures in Boise. “Dentists and denturists compete for the same people; you cannot have one over the other."
House Bill 495 aims to save the state money by eliminating the independent Board of Denturity, which oversees just 28 licensed experts statewide.
The Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses says the board has been losing money for years due to low fees from the small number of denturists. But opponents argue that dissolving it is the wrong move.
“Rather than addressing the issues through targeted financial solutions, the proposal before you would eliminate an entire [voter-created board],” William Harris, a licensed denturist. “We just want to raise our fees, and we don’t understand why we can’t do that.”
Elizabeth Criner with the Idaho State Dental Association says the bill will keep licensure costs down.
“And we do support the recommendation to move the practice of denturitry under the state board of dentistry,” Criner said.
For Dana Triplitt, a denturist intern, the independent board was one of the reasons she moved to the state.
“When I finished school, I chose to move to the state of Idaho specifically because we had an independent board of denturitry,” Triplitt said.
The current bill text doesn’t specifically require a licensed denturist to serve on the proposed nine-member state Board of Dentistry — something many people testifying were concerned about.
After all the testimony, House Bill 495 was sent to general orders to be revised. It’s likely the bill’s sponsor will add new verbiage requiring a single licensed denturist to be added to the dentistry board — if one is available and willing to serve — before making another attempt at passage.
