2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVI - Public Health › Chapter 112 - Registration of Certain Professions and Occupations › Section 45 - Registration of Dentists; Applications; Examinations and Re-Examinations; Fees; Participation in Medical Assistance Program; Certificate; Alien Applicants

Section 45. Applications for registration hereunder shall be in writing upon blanks furnished by the board, which shall be signed and sworn to by the applicant, presenting proof of the requirements herein specified. Any such applicant eighteen years of age or over and of good moral character who shall furnish the board with satisfactory proof that he has received a diploma from the faculty of a dental college accredited or recognized as accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Dental and Dental Auxiliary Educational Programs of the American Dental Association as defined in section forty-six, shall, upon payment of a fee to be determined annually by the commissioner of administration under the provision of section three B of chapter seven, be entitled to be examined by the board. An applicant failing in his examination shall be entitled to two re-examinations within three years, for which he shall pay a fee determined under the aforementioned provision for each one taken. Thereafter, upon filing a new application for registration and paying a fee determined under the aforementioned provision, he shall be entitled to like re-examinations. If found competent, the applicant shall be registered by the board and shall receive a certificate of registration signed by the members of the board or a majority of them, which shall be prima facie evidence of the right of the holder to practice dentistry. In proof of this right the certificate or a duplicate shall be kept in his office in plain view of his patients, and, on application, shall be shown to any member or agent of the board.
The board shall require as a condition of granting or renewing a dentist's certificate of registration, that the dentist apply to participate in the medical assistance program administered by the secretary of health and human services in accordance with chapter 118E and Title XIX of the Social Security Act and any federal demonstration or waiver relating to such medical assistance program for the limited purposes of ordering and referring services covered under such program, provided that regulations governing such limited participation are promulgated under said chapter 118E. A dentist who chooses to participate in such medical assistance program as a provider of services shall be deemed to have fulfilled this requirement.
The board shall examine an applicant who is an alien only if he presents to it a certificate from the court in which he shall have filed his declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States, or from the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the United States, showing that he has declared his intention to become such a citizen, or a copy of such declaration of intention, certified by the clerk of such court. In case the applicant is subsequently registered, unless he shall present to the board, within five years following the filing of the certificate or certified copy hereinbefore referred to, his completed naturalization papers showing that he is a citizen of the United States his certificate of registration shall be revoked and his registration cancelled. The foregoing provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to limited registration under section forty-five A.