The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this chapter, shall have the meanings ascribed to them under this section except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

(1) “Academic license” means a license issued under § 1132A of this title to a full-time director, chairperson, or attending faculty member of a hospital based dental, oral and maxillofacial surgery or other specialty dental residency program for the purposes of teaching.

(2) “Board” shall mean the State Board of Dentistry and Dental Hygiene established in this chapter.

(3) “Dental assistant” shall mean any person not licensed to practice dentistry and/or dental hygiene in this State, who aids a dentist in the performance of generalized tasks, including chair-side aid, clerical work, reception, radiography, dental laboratory work, and any other such tasks delegated by the dentist.

(4) “Dental auxiliary personnel” shall mean any person not licensed to practice dentistry in this State, who works in a dental office as either a dental assistant, dental hygienist, dental technician, or otherwise.

(5) “Dental hygienist” shall mean a person who is qualified to practice dental hygiene as prescribed in this chapter.

(6) “Dental technician” shall mean any person not licensed to practice dentistry in this State, engaged in the business of constructing, altering, repairing or duplicating full dentures (“plates”), partial dentures, splints, orthodontic appliances, fixed bridges or any other prosthetic appliances.

(7) “Dentist” shall mean a person who is qualified to practice dentistry as prescribed in the chapter.

(8) “Distant site” means a site at which a health-care provider legally allowed to practice in the State is located while providing health-care services by means of telemedicine or telehealth.

(9) “Division” shall mean the State Division of Professional Regulation.

(10) “Excessive use or abuse of drugs” shall mean any use of narcotics, controlled substances or illegal drugs without a prescription from a licensed individual with valid prescriptive authority or the abuse of alcoholic beverage or prescription or nonprescription drugs, such that it impairs a person’s ability to perform the work of a dentist or dental hygienist.

(11) “Originating site” means a site in Delaware at which a patient is located at the time health-care services are provided to him or her by means of telemedicine or telehealth, unless the term is otherwise defined with respect to the provision in which it is used; provided, however, notwithstanding any other provision of law, insurers and providers may agree to alternative siting arrangements deemed appropriate by the parties.

(12) “Person” shall mean a corporation, company, association or partnership, as well as an individual.

(13) “Practice of dental hygiene” shall mean the removal of calculus deposits, plaque and stains from all surfaces of the teeth, and making instrumental examinations of the oral cavity, and assembling all necessary information for use by the dentist in diagnosis and treatment planning, and the performance of such prophylactic or preventive measures in the case of teeth, including the application of chemicals to the teeth and periodontal tissues, designed and approved for the prevention of dental caries and/or periodontal disease, as the Board may authorize; but the “practice of dental hygiene” shall not include any other operation on the teeth or tissues of the mouth.

(14) “Practice of dentistry” is defined as the evaluation, diagnosis, prevention and/or treatment (nonsurgical, surgical or related procedures) of diseases, disorders and/or conditions of the oral cavity, maxillofacial area and/or the adjacent and associated structures and their impact on the human body provided by a dentist within the scope of the dentist’s education, training and experience, in accordance with the ethics of the profession and applicable law. The practice includes the use of telemedicine and may also include participation in telehealth as further defined in regulation. A person shall be construed to practice dentistry who by verbal claim, sign, advertisement, opening of an office, or in any other way, including use of the words “dentist,” “dental surgeon,” the letters “D.D.S.,” “D.M.D.,” or other letters or titles, represents the person to be a dentist or who holds himself or herself out as able to perform, or who does perform, dental services or work. A person shall be regarded as practicing dentistry who is a manager, proprietor, operator or conductor of a place for performing dental operations or who for a fee, salary or other reward paid, or to be paid either to himself or herself or to another person, performs or advertises to perform dental operations of any kind.

(15) “State” shall mean the State of Delaware.

(16) “Store and forward transfer” means the transmission of a patient’s medical information either to or from an originating site or to or from the provider at the distant site, but does not require the patient being present nor must it be in real time.

(17) “Substantially related” means the nature of the criminal conduct, for which the person was convicted, has a direct bearing on the fitness or ability to perform 1 or more of the duties or responsibilities necessarily related to the practice of dentistry or dental hygiene.

(18) “Telehealth” means the use of information and communications technologies consisting of telephones, remote patient monitoring devices or other electronic means which support clinical health care, provider consultation, patient and professional health-related education, public health, health administration, and other services as described in regulation.

(19) “Telemedicine” means a form of telehealth which is the delivery of clinical health-care services by means of real time 2-way audio, visual, or other telecommunications or electronic communications, including the application of secure video conferencing or store and forward transfer technology to provide or support health-care delivery, which facilitate the assessment, diagnosis, consultation, treatment, education, care management and self-management of a patient’s health care by a licensee practicing within his or her scope of practice as would be practiced in-person with a patient and with other restrictions as defined in regulation.

73 Del. Laws, c. 332, § 3; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § 1; 74 Del. Laws, c. 262, § 20; 75 Del. Laws, c. 436, § 8; 77 Del. Laws, c. 463, §§ 1, 2, 3; 79 Del. Laws, c. 261, § 1; 80 Del. Laws, c. 80, § 9; 81 Del. Laws, c. 79, § 37.