Dental Board to Revisit Lawful-Presence Licensing Rules Seven Months After the First Round

The State Board of Dental Examiners will take up another round of rules on proving lawful presence to hold a Texas dental license Nov. 6, seven months after the first set took effect.

The six rule sections reach dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, dental laboratories and the licenses held by people who teach at dental schools. The versions the board adopted in March require an applicant to show, at first application and again at every renewal, identification establishing that the person is legally eligible to practice in Texas. The board wrote them under its own general rulemaking power, pointing to a 1996 federal welfare law that bars people who are not lawfully present from receiving state professional licenses. Four parties commented: the Texas Dental Association, which took no position, the Texas House Democratic Caucus, state Rep. John Bryant and one dentist. The board made no changes in response to any of them.

Nov. 6 brings those sections back in two forms. Four of the six — the dentist, hygienist, dental assistant and laboratory rules — were republished in September and come up for adoption, carrying the lawful-presence language forward unchanged. Separately, board staff has its own proposal covering all six sections, and that one has not been published anywhere. What it would change is not established in the public record. One of the six, the dental assistant rule, was adopted in March with changes that forced the board to republish it then too.

Elsewhere the board will decide whether dental assistants may apply two brush-on treatments that halt or reverse early tooth decay — silver diamine fluoride and Curodont. That is partly about who may do the work and partly about the treatments: the fluoride darkens the tooth it treats, which is hard to undo, and board rules let assistants perform only reversible procedures. The board asked the public what it thought in August. Also up: continuing-education and fee changes, a rule on applicants with criminal records, and three requests for exceptions to the board’s own rules.

The disciplinary half of the agenda is routine in form — a slate of proposed settlements, remedial plans, penalties and dismissals from the Disciplinary Review Committee, plus five contested cases back from the state’s administrative court. Three of those five involve applicants rather than current license holders. No findings have been made in any of them; the board is weighing administrative law judges’ recommendations and proposed orders. Public comment is item nine, after all three committee reports, so the board will have taken up the licensing rules before anyone from the floor can speak to them.

Meeting at a glance

Board members

• Bryan Henderson II, D.D.S. — presiding officer; Dallas; dentist.
• Linda Treviño Burke, D.D.S. — Harlingen; dentist; Dental Practice Committee chair.
• Yvonne E. Maldonado, D.D.S. — El Paso; dentist.
• Lisa B. Masters, D.D.S. — San Antonio; dentist.
• Robert G. McNeill, D.D.S., M.D. — Dallas; dentist; Anesthesia Committee chair.
• Brady Morehead, D.D.S. — San Antonio; dentist; Licensing Committee chair.
• Lorie Jones, R.D.H. — Magnolia; hygienist; board secretary; Disciplinary Review chair.
• Janessa Bock, R.D.H. — Sugar Land; dental hygienist.
• Margo Y. Melchor, R.D.H., Ed.D. — Houston; dental hygienist.
• Ricky Garcia — Pasadena; public member.
• Sarah Lamb — Dallas; public member.

Names, cities and committee roles are from the board’s member biographies and committees page, checked October 28, which show no vacancy, and match the roll call in the board’s May 8 minutes. Seven of the 11 also appear in the governor’s appointment releases of October 2025, which named Henderson presiding officer, and December 2023; the other four are not covered by either release. The board does not label its two public seats; Garcia and Lamb are identified as the public members by elimination, since the statute sets six dentists, three hygienists and two public members. Meeting contact: Casey Nichols, (737) 363-2320.