Teeth whitening — who can provide the service in our state and who can’t — is now the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case. The N.C. Board of Dental Examiners wants to keep non-dentists from providing the service. Carolina Journal reported on the case/issue in 2012.

The eight-member dental board was created by the General Assembly to regulate the practice of dentistry. The board has justified tougher enforcement by pointing to a subsection of state law that defines practicing dentistry as including the removal of “stains, accretions, or deposits from human teeth.” In the board’s view, teeth whitening is deemed a dental treatment that can be provided only by a state-licensed dentist.

Entrepreneurs, however, say they are being targeted unfairly and forced out of business for applying the same teeth-whitening products that are sold over the counter as cosmetics. Consumers can purchase the products — which are approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration — online or in stores and apply to their teeth at home without a prescription or professional supervision.

Joyce Osborn, president and founder of the Alabama-based Council for Cosmetic Teeth Whitening, a trade association, told Carolina Journal that the issue is not about public health or safety, or even a concern that non-dentists are motivated only by financial self-interest, as the N.C. dental board asserts. Osborn says dentists want to maintain a lucrative monopoly and protect their own revenues from lower-cost competitors. Dentists charge as much as $300 to $700 per treatment, whereas some non-dentists offer the service for less than $100.

Osborn, who invented and markets an FDA-cleared teeth-whitening system, says she’s battled the N.C. dental board and other state boards for several years. “That’s why I founded the council,” Osborn said, “to inform and help members on issues of safety, training, best practices, and appropriate marketing.”

What’s really at play is whether or not there should be competition in the marketplace for these services. And, as you might expect, there are some who don’t like competition. They’d rather circle the wagons and keep everyone else out.

We’ll see what the Supreme Court has to say about it.