Title: Ice v. STATE EX REL. INDIANA STATE BOARD, ETC.

State: indiana

Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court

Document:

240 Ind. 82 (1959)
161 N.E.2d 171
ICE
v.
STATE EX REL. INDIANA STATE BOARD OF DENTAL EXAMINERS.
No. 29,774.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed November 2, 1959.
*83 William C. Welborn and Milford M. Miller, both of Evansville, for appellant.
Edwin K. Steers, Attorney General, and Thomas L. Webber, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
ACHOR, C.J.
This is an action by the State of Indiana on relation of the Indiana State Board of Dental Examiners for an injunction to restrain appellant Robert B. Ice from engaging in the practice of dentistry. The injunction issued and from this decree appellant appeals.
Appellant is a dental technician with 20 years' experience. During his military service he both fitted and manufactured prosthetic dentures. Appellant asserts that the Acts of 1943, ch. 308, § 2, p. 1036 [being § 63-522, Burns' 1951 Repl.], which defines the practice of dentistry and limits such practice only to licensed dentists, is unconstitutional and that the decision of the court is contrary to law and is not sustained by sufficient evidence.
In support of his contention that the decision of the court is contrary to law and not sustained by sufficient *84 evidence, appellant argues that the decision is contrary to public policy in that it prohibits experienced dental technicians from taking impressions necessary to the manufacture of dentures and prohibits the construction or repair of dentures to be worn by any person except on prescription by and delivery to a licensed dentist.[1] In support of his argument, appellant asserts the existence of a great public need for dentures and a comparable shortage of dentists, which makes it impossible for the dentist to either make or adequately supervise the making of dentures sufficient to meet the public need. In effect, appellant argues that the injunction constitutes an unlawful exercise of the police power.
However, it is well settled that the practice of dentistry is a profession directly related to the public health and that the exercise of the police power for control of practice of dentistry is a matter which rests with the legislature and not with the court. Upon this subject this court has stated:
We next consider appellant's contention that the law is unconstitutional. Appellant asserts that it violates Art. 1, §§ 1, 21 and 23 of the Constitution of Indiana, and Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.[2]
Specifically appellant contends that under Art. 1, §§ 1 and 23, supra, appellant has a vested right as a dental *86 technician, experienced in the making of prosthetic dentures, to continue the practice of his profession, notwithstanding the provisions of § 63-522, supra, which defines such activity as the practice of dentistry, and because of this alleged vested right the appellant's constitutional rights are violated by the enforcement of this statute.
Further appellant contends that he has been discriminated against in that he has not been extended the same privileges and immunities as other classes of citizens, such as dentists or medical technicians, contrary to Art. 1, § 23 of the Constitution of Indiana, supra, and § 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, supra. The contentions have heretofore been answered in the negative by the following cases and authorities:
In State v. Williams (1937), 211 Ind. 186, 197, 5 N.E.2d 961, this court said:
And in State ex rel. Bd. of Dental Exam. v. Boston Sys. Den. (1939), 215 Ind. 485, 489, 19 N.E.2d 949, this court said:
And in Lucas v. State ex rel. Board, etc. (1951), 229 Ind. 633, 639-642, 99 N.E.2d 419, we quoted from The State, ex rel. Burroughs v. Webster et al. (1898), *87 150 Ind. 607, 616, 617, 618, 619, 620 and 621, 50 N.E. 750, 753, 754, 755, with approval as follows:
See also: 5 I.L.E., Constitutional Law, § 203, p. 496; 16 C.J.S., § 195, pp. 940-942; 16A C.J.S., § 510, pp. 337-340, § 511g, pp. 354-355, §§ 668, 669, pp. 1059-1060, 1069-1071, § 673, p. 1078.
Judgment is therefore affirmed.
Arterburn, Bobbitt, Jackson and Landis, JJ., concur.
NOTE.  Reported in 161 N.E.2d 171.
[1]  "Any person shall be said to be practicing dentistry within the meaning of this act [§§ 63-501  63-526] who ... makes impressions or casts of any oral tissues or structures for the purpose of diagnosis or treatment thereof or for the construction, repair, reproduction or duplication of any prosthetic device to alleviate or cure any oral lesion or replace any lost oral structure, tissue, or teeth; or engages in practices included in the curricula of recognized dental colleges; or directly or indirectly by any means or method furnishes, supplies, constructs, reproduces, repairs, or adjusts any prosthetic denture, bridge, appliance, or any other structure to be worn in the human mouth and delivers the same to any person other than the duly licensed dentist upon whose prescription or order the work was performed; ..." § 63-522, Burns' 1951 Repl.
[2]  "All men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Art. 1, § 1, Const. of Indiana.

"No man's particular services shall be demanded, without just compensation. No man's property shall be taken by law, without just compensation; nor, except in case of the State, without such compensation first assessed and tendered." Art. 1, § 23, Const. of Indiana.
"... No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Amend. 14, § 1, Const. of the United States.