BCCOHP Complaints and Discipline: Legal Counsel for Oral Health Professionals in BC

Being subjected to a regulatory action by the British Columbia College of Oral Health Professionals (the “BCCOHP” or the “College”) can be one of the most intimidating experiences for a BC oral health professional. Trying to navigate through the complexities of the rules and procedures of the College is both stressful and disruptive to your daily dental practice, and an underprepared or ineffective defence may lead to severe detrimental consequences.

This article provides some essential information about what to expect if you are going through or expecting to go through the BCCOHP’s disciplinary process. However, as you read on, it is important to remember that we highly recommend that you obtain legal counsel as early as possible.

The experienced lawyers at Taylor Janis would safeguard your rights, guide you through the rules and procedures, as well as strategically defend against allegations. These not only mitigate potential risks but also minimize stress and help you focus on your practice instead.

The Statutory Disciplinary Powers of the BCCOHP

The Regulatory Authority of the BCCOHP

Under the current Health Professions Act of British Columbia (the “HPA”), the British Columbia College of Oral Health Professionals is the regulatory college regulating all oral health professionals in BC, and it has statutory disciplinary powers over all of its registrants, including all BC dentists, dental surgeons, dental therapists, denturists, dental technicians, dental hygienists, dental student practitioners and non-practicing registrants, as well as certified dental assistants.

To reform some aspects of the regulatory regime governing health professions, the BC government introduced the Health Professions and Occupations Act (the “HPOA”), which received royal assent in 2022. However, the HPOA is not yet in full force, and its full coming into force will not take away the BCCOHP’s standing as the regulatory college for oral health professionals, which will retain much of its current regulatory powers and discretion in relation to licensing, complaint processing and investigating its registrants.

Although the BCCOHP is not a government agency, it is an administrative and regulatory body whose discipline decisions are legally enforceable. Though the HPOA will introduce more government oversight into the disciplinary process, both the HPA and HPOA confer broad regulatory powers as well as discretion to the College in terms of making bylaws, governing its own internal affairs, and disciplining its registrants.

*The information provided in the article is descriptive and applicable to the current regulatory regime under the HPA and the parts of HPOA already in force, except where it is otherwise specified.

The Damaging Effects of Discipline

If the BCCOHP makes an adverse discipline decision, one or more of the following disciplinary measures may be ordered against the respondent registrant:

• A reprimand;
• Imposition of limits or conditions on the respondent registrant’s dental practice;
• Suspension or cancellation of registration;
• Imposition of limits or conditions on the management of the registrant’s practice during the suspension, or on their eligibility to apply for reinstatement; and
• A fine of up to $50,000.

Additionally, the College may recover certain costs associated with the disciplinary process from the respondent registrant, up to an amount equivalent to 50% of actual legal fees incurred by the College.

An adverse BCCOHP discipline decision against a dental health professional can severely damage their career, practice, and finances: your license can be at stake, and the conditions or restrictions imposed can be highly onerous and disruptive to both your dental practice and even personal life, and the financial implications can go well beyond just the fine or costs ordered, due to the potential disruptive effects.

Moreover, adverse discipline decisions can result in widespread and long-term reputational damage. The HPA requires the BCCOHP to notify the public of its adverse discipline decisions unanonymized, unless anonymization is required to protect the interests of other persons affected by the matter. The current discipline publication policy of the College is that discipline notices remain accessible on the BCCOHP website for 10 years and are provided to the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) for potentially permanent publication.

The Importance of Legal Advice

BCCOHP discipline decisions are legally enforceable and can have severe career, financial and reputational consequences. When facing a potential discipline, it is highly advisable that you seek legal advice to minimize unnecessary risks. Even when the allegation or the likelihood of receiving discipline is seemingly trivial, you should consult a lawyer to assess the case and evaluate the potential risks.

The next section of this article is about the disciplinary process of the BCCOHP and why you should retain legal representation at the earliest stage possible. As you read on, please bear in mind that Taylor Janis Workplace Law offers legal services to all professionals facing regulatory actions in all areas of BC. If you have any questions regarding these, please do not hesitate to contact our Vancouver or Kamloops office.

The Disciplinary Process of the BCCOHP

Complaint to the College

Under the HPA, any person can make a complaint against an oral health professional to the BCCOHP registrar, meaning a complaint does not necessarily need to come from a patient. Moreover, the HPA imposes a positive duty on BCCOHP registrants to report their peers for endangering the public or sexual misconduct. Given the sensitive nature of the dentist-patient relationship, it is possible for an oral health professional to receive a complaint even if they have always maintained high standards of professionalism, competence and ethics.

Notably, a complaint is not the only way to attract scrutiny from the Inquiry Committee, as an investigation can also be internally triggered because of findings of the College’s Quality Assurance Committee.

The Investigation by Inquiry Committee

Once the BCCOHP registrar receives a complaint, they must refer it to the Inquiry Committee, unless they have determined that the complaint is trivial, frivolous, vexatious or made in bad faith, or the matter lacks the gravity to trigger an investigation. Once referred to, the Inquiry Committee is legally bound to commence an investigation as soon as possible.

An investigation can be highly intrusive to a registrant’s practice or even personal life, as the investigator appointed by the Inquiry Committee has broad investigatory powers, and the registrant has a legal obligation to cooperate. An investigator can:

• Require and retain information, records and/or certain physical evidence from the investigated registrant;
• Require the investigated registrant to answer questions and/or to be interviewed;
• Inspect the investigated registrant’s premises for dental practice; and
• Expand the investigatory power to search other premises and/or to seize other evidence by obtaining court orders.

Under extraordinary circumstances, for the protection of the public, the Inquiry Committee may suspend or place restrictions on the investigated registrant’s practice during an investigation. Such decisions must be put on public notice, thus resulting in profound reputational damage even before a final disciplinary decision is made.

The investigation process can be intimidating and disruptive, and you are legally obliged to cooperate. If you are under an investigation and have not yet retained legal representation, it is highly recommended that you seek legal advice immediately to avoid inadvertently jeopardizing your case.

Alternative Resolutions

The Inquiry Committee can do more than investigate. During an investigation, the Inquiry Committee may take actions such as requesting the investigated registrant to consent to a reprimand or to undertake to perform/refrain from taking certain actions (known as reprimand or remedial action by consent), it can also assist voluntary settlement between the complainant and the investigated registrant.

At the investigation stage, an investigated registrant can also propose to the Inquiry Committee for a consent order by admitting certain alleged facts and proposing discipline orders against them, and this proposal may be accepted or rejected by the Inquiry Committee.

If a voluntary resolution or resolution by consent is reached, then the complaint is resolved without going through the Discipline Committee hearing process. However, you should think carefully and strategically before exercising such options, and ideally do this with legal advice. There are a few reasons for this:

• A settlement or resolution by consent is legally binding, so you should only agree to what is reasonable based on careful analysis of the applicable legal rules and the factual circumstances.
• A reprimand or remedial action by consent, or a consent order, can be seen as a form of admission to the alleged facts, which will substantially foreclose the possibility of appealing the BCCOHP’s decision on factual grounds.
• You should consider the potential reputational damage:
  • A consent order is considered to be a discipline order and will be published like one.
  • Certain Information regarding a complaint resolved by a reprimand or remedial action by consent will be published, and the registrant may be named to protect public interest, subject to the HPA and the BCCOHP Bylaws.
  • Certain Information regarding a complaint resolved by voluntary settlement may be published with anonymization for educational purposes.

Hence, if you are undergoing an investigation and you are weighing a settlement or resolution by consent as an alternative to going through a Discipline Committee Hearing, you should know that this should not be a decision made hastily without having a lawyer comprehensively review your case first.

Discipline Committee Hearing

Unresolved complaints will be referred to the Discipline Committee for a hearing, which is considered quasi-judicial. A hearing requires extensive preparation, and the procedures can be intimidatingly intense for a registrant to navigate alone. Here are a few things you should know about Discipline Committee hearings:

• The preparation timeline is intense:
  • A hearing citation can be given as late as 30 days prior to the date of the hearing, and the date, time and place of the complaint hearing can have as little as 14 days’ notice.
• The procedures have profound reputational implications:
  • A hearing is presumptively open to the public; therefore, secondary reputational harm can occur if a respondent registrant is underprepared.
  • Hearing Citations are published on the College’s website, and hence, reputational harm can manifest even before a decision is made.
• The hearing is quasi-judicial, and the contentions can be intense:
  • A hearing is a court-like adversarial procedure, meaning the parties are expected to contend their legal and factual positions, and a decision is made based on the relative strength of the parties’ positions. Hence, extensive legal research, evidence preparation and tenacious advocacy are often essential in defending against a complaint.
  • The parties (usually the College and a registrant) both have a statutory right to legal representation, and a complainant may be represented by counsel if they are presenting evidence.
• A respondent registrant may be ordered to testify or disclose records:
  • A court order may be obtained against you if you do not cooperate, resulting in severe legal consequences.
  • You should also be careful not to inadvertently prejudice your own case when being examined as a witness (intensely scrutinized with questions).

Given the intense and quasi-judicial nature of a Discipline Committee hearing, as well as its high consequences, it is eminently clear that you should exercise your statutory right to be represented by counsel at a hearing.

Appealing a decision

If a respondent registrant disagrees with a BCCOHP Discipline Committee decision against them, they can appeal that decision to the Supreme Court of British Columbia within a short 30-day period after the decision is received. However, an appeal is a highly onerous task, and it is far more preferable to receive a favourable outcome at the hearing stage. This is for a few reasons:

• Just like any other appellate action, the process is likely lengthy and complex, and a high legal and factual threshold needs to be met for a decision to be successfully appealed. The appellate standards will be discussed in depth in the next section of this article.
  • Moreover, the Supreme Court of Canada decision Vavilov affirmed the common law principle which requires an appellate court to pay deference to regulatory decision makers out of respect for legislators’ intent.
• An appeal is normally not a rehearing, which means a registrant cannot submit additional evidence regarding the alleged conduct, nor can they try to reargue their case. Only issues related to the fairness of a discipline decision or the decision-making process will be heard.
• An appeal does not automatically pause the enforcement of a discipline order; moreover, even if an appeal is successful, it is possible that the decision is sent back to the College to be re-determined, rather than being quashed outright. These mean the detriments of a discipline decision may manifest in the background as the procedures drag on.

Hence, an appeal should be seen as a last resort to seek remedies after an adverse decision has been made, and it should only be attempted when you can support your arguments with evidence and applicable laws, ideally with the help of legal counsel. Hence, we reiterate our strong recommendation that you engage legal representation early when undergoing a disciplinary process to maximize the chance of receiving a favourable initial decision.

Early Legal Representation Is Key

The disciplinary process of the BCCOHP involves a sequence of escalating procedures, each heightening the potential risks. However, even the early stages of a disciplinary process can be highly complex, interruptive and consequential. You need to respond carefully and strategically at each stage whilst avoiding legal pitfalls. Hence, it is strongly recommended that you obtain legal counsel as early as possible when expecting a BCCOHO regulatory action.

If you are under the regulatory scrutiny of the BCCOHP, regardless of the procedure you are currently under, please do not hesitate to contact Taylor Janis Workplace Law today.

It is also important to know that your rights are engaged every step of the way when undergoing a disciplinary process, and early and ongoing legal representation can be crucial for safeguarding those rights. Please read on if you would like to know more.

Legal Rights when Undergoing Disciplinary Processes

The BCCOHP has broad discretion in making its disciplinary decisions, but there are legal limits to this discretion. For example, it is limited by an investigated registrant’s rights, which are informed by administrative law, common law, and even the Constitution, and the procedures affecting these rights are found in the HPA, the HPOA and the BCCOHP Bylaws.

The Rights

It is practically impossible to pinpoint everything that a registrant is entitled to during each stage of a disciplinary process, given the multiplicity of the sources of a registrant’s legal rights, and that the rights as abstract legal concepts are embedded within and affected by concrete procedures in nuanced ways. However, for informational purposes and to put it into broad categories, a BCCOHP registrant subject to disciplinary action is entitled to:

• Unbiased decision makers:
  • The standard is that the decision and decision-making process should not raise a reasonable apprehension of bias to an informed third person observing the entire circumstance.
  • If an investigated registrant is concerned that their decision makers might be biased, they need to substantiate the alleged bias with evidence to meet the high legal and factual thresholds.
• Procedural fairness:
  • In principle, this means procedures must be chosen and conducted appropriately to enable an investigated registrant to know the case against them and make a full answer and defence.
  • However, it often requires substantial legal knowledge and experience to apply the laws to the circumstances to discern whether the correct procedure is chosen and if it is conducted appropriately.
• Substantive fairness:
  • Since the HPA gives statutory pathways for a registrant to appeal BCCOHP discipline committee decisions to the BC Supreme Court, where the substantive fairness of such decisions is assessed by the appellate standards as if they were made by a lower court.
  • The standard of a successful appeal on this ground is that either the fact-finding contains palpable overriding errors or the laws were applied incorrectly, as iterated in the Supreme Court of Canada decision Housen and affirmed in the landmark case Vavilov.
  • These are highly stringent standards that are difficult to meet without strong legal and factual supports.

Safeguarding Your Rights with Legal Representation

The key takeaway is, your rights are engaged at every stage of a disciplinary process, and it is a monumental task to correct the course after the fact of an unfair decision. Hence, we highly recommend that you retain legal counsel at the early stage and have them engaged with the process throughout. A lawyer is equipped with the legal acumen to vigilantly spot, flag and object to potential infringements as they emerge, thus safeguarding your rights.

Legal counsel not only safeguards your rights but also tenaciously advocates for you. Advocacy requires skills honed through knowledge and experience, as well as a degree of resourcefulness and strategic assessment of the situation. The next section is about strategically defending against an allegation. Please read on if you would like to know more.

Strategic Defence: Rules, Facts and Advocacy

When undergoing a disciplinary process, it is often crucial to strategically plan a defence. A robust defence is often a combination of tenacious advocacy, precise application of legal rules, and robust factual positions substantiated with strong evidence.

The Rules Are Intricate, Nuanced, and Multi-Sourced

The public places great trust in oral health professionals, and given that the governing legislation has great emphasis on promoting public interest, the BCCOHP places a high standard of competence, professionalism and ethics on its registrants.

The legislative and regulatory framework governing oral health professionals is complex and necessarily so. As someone who has worked tirelessly to gain your license and takes pride in your profession, it is important to bear in mind that there is a multiplicity of sources of your duties and contravention of any of them can potentially attract discipline, for instance:

• The minimum standards for ethical conduct, performance and professional behaviour for all oral health professionals can be found in the unified Professional Standards for the Oral Health Team (the “Standards”), which took effect on June 30, 2025. Moreover, as of the time of this article’s publication, the legacy Codes of Ethics and Practice standards of legacy colleges, which were amalgamated into the BCCOHP, have not been fully rescinded yet.
  • The Standards contain mostly broad and principled ethical, professionalism and competence duties such as putting the patient’s interest first and providing safe and competent care, and to discharge these duties may also require you to follow more technical guidelines (such as infection prevention requirements) found in other applicable sources.
• The BCCOHP Bylaws not only regulate the internal organizational practices of the College, but also have binding effects on its registrants and oral health profession corporations. The provisions related to accreditation, licensing, disciplinary measures and procedures, as well as registrants’ communication and interaction with the public and the College, are particularly important to a registrant.
• An oral health professional also has an overarching duty to act lawfully, and this means more than just to practice with an appropriate license or to act pursuant to the HPA and the HPOA and their accompanying regulations.
  • When different rules interact with each other, things can get profoundly intricate. This means when making a disciplinary decision, the College might have to take into account common law rules and other legislation, and correct references to these additional legal authorities may be key in achieving a favourable outcome.
  • For example, you have an obligation to make reasonable accommodations when treating patients with disabilities, and what accommodation should be considered adequate may be contested with reference to common law and human rights laws precedents.
• When the new HPOA becomes fully in force, the College would likely amend its standards, guidelines and the Bylaws accordingly to conform to the requirements of the HPOA and to promote its public-interest and policy goals. This means your duties as an oral health professional may change and evolve.

Oral health professionals have a demanding career, and it would be challenging for anyone to simultaneously commit to their dental practice and stay comprehensively informed of the complex and evolving regulatory landscape without legal advice.

The Facts May Be Intensely Disputed

The facts surrounding a complaint can often be intensely disputed, and ultimately, a discipline decision can only be made by applying the rules to facts that can be substantiated with evidence. When preparing evidence, it is crucial to bear in mind:

• There are rules specifically governing the admissibility of evidence at BCCOHP Discipline Committee hearings. The rules can get more complicated when expert evidence is involved (which is common if a complaint involves bodily injury), as expert evidence has unique qualifications, formal and procedural requirements.
• The strength of evidence is assessed relative to competing evidence, especially at the hearing stage. Which means organization, presentation, and accurate description of the legal and factual nexuses are often essential in preparing an effective evidence package.

The Importance of Skilled Advocacy

As discussed above, the rules are complex, nuanced and evolving, and facts are often intensely disputed. A skilled lawyer as your advocate can:

• Leverage their legal knowledge and conduct extensive legal research to prepare strong legal defences.
• Prepare factual defences with well-organized and well-presented evidence, meanwhile, flag competing evidence’s admissibility issues when it is factually irrelevent, legally immaterial or unduly prejudicial to you.
• Highlight factual and legal factors that might otherwise be under-considered by the decision makers. This can be particularly important when the rule is nuanced or contested. For example, you have a duty to put your patient’s interest first and address conflicts of interest that may compromise your professional judgement. But whether a conflict is a material one can only be assessed with a full-picture consideration of the entire circumstances and comparable legal precedents.

Hence, to strategically defend a case, considering the complexity of the rules, the adversarial nature of factual disputes, as well as the importance of skilled advocacy, it is always a good idea to seek a lawyer to comprehensively review your case and have a tailored legal plan.

Taylor Janis Provides Tailored Legal Plans

The experienced lawyers at Taylor Janis can assist you in navigating the complex disciplinary procedures and leverage our extensive legal skills to strategically defend your case and advocate for your rights.

We are not just tenacious advocates but also practical problem solvers. We appreciate that every case is different, and so are the needs of each client. We always offer tailored legal plans based on strategic and informed assessments of the situation. Where it requires, we will tenaciously defend your case, where it is reasonable, we will propose practical resolutions, and where the risk is minimum, we will give you good faith legal advice and give you the peace of mind.

A tailored plan starts with an initial consultation. If you are a BC oral health professional undergoing a BCCOHP disciplinary process or facing a prospective one, contact us at our Vancouver or Kamloops office today. We are looking forward to offering our tailored legal plans to protect your professional reputation, safeguard your long-term career and minimize the disruption to your practice.

Frequently Asked Questions

I Think the Complaint is Completely Unfounded. Should I Still Consult a Lawyer?

We recommend that you receive legal advice even when the complaint against you is seemingly trivial, frivolous or factually unfounded. There are a few reasons for this. The rules governing oral health professionals are complex, detailed and nuanced; it is possible for a seemingly trivial action to be seen as a contravention or misconduct. Second, though the complainant’s perspectives on the facts may contradict yours, they may nonetheless be supported by some evidence circumstantially. At times, it is not enough to just tell your version of facts, but also to support it with counter-evidence. Hence, it is always a good idea to let a lawyer assess and mitigate the risk for you. Taylor Janis always offers tailored legal plans, and if full representation is not necessary, at least you will get the peace of mind after a consultation.

How Long Does a Typical BCCOHP Disciplinary Process Take?

How long the entire process takes would vary greatly depending on various factors and how the investigated registrants handle the situation. Some of the significant factors include the gravity, complexity, and factual and legal merit of the complaint. A frivolous complaint may be dismissed very quickly, but if an investigation or hearing ensues, the entire process can take a few months or even well over a year. If you are concerned about the disruptive effects of an impending disciplinary process, you should engage legal counsel who will assist in navigating the procedures and streamlining them where reasonable.

Can I Continue Practicing During a BCCOHP Investigation?

If the College does not suspend or place any restrictions or conditions on your registration or practice, then you can provide dental care as normal. Nonetheless, your dental practice may be affected by investigatory actions, and you may have to substantially divert your attention to defend your case. If the college has suspended your registration, you should stop the provision of real estate services, and similarly, if any restriction or condition is ordered, you should strictly observe them. Speak to a lawyer at Taylor Janis if you are unsure about whether and how you should continue the provision of dental care and prevent further regulatory scrutiny.

My Patient Has Signed a Waiver before Receiving Treatment. Does this Mean I am Shielded from a Complaint?

A dental treatment liability waiver can only waive a patient’s ability to make certain claims, such as for damages that occurred because of the expected risks inherent in dental treatments competently performed according to applicable standards. A waiver cannot completely waive an oral health professional’s legal obligations, nor can it waive potential claims such as gross negligence, and any terms attempting to do so would be legally unenforceable. Hence, a liability waiver will not necessarily shield you from complaints, and the ideal way to assess risk is to have a lawyer review the waiver as well as the claim.

I Am No Longer Registered with the BCCOHP. Can I Still Be Disciplined?

Yes, under the HPA, a complaint can be filed against a former registrant and processed as if it were against a current registrant, though a limitation period may apply and prevent the College from processing complaints regarding conduct that took place too long ago. Moreover, if you are a former BCCOHP registrant who is currently practicing in another province, you should be aware that a BCCOHP discipline may affect your standing with your current regulator. You should consult a lawyer if you have questions about the applicable limitation period or the effects of discipline.

Conclusion

BCCOHP discipline decisions have legally binding effects on its registrants, and these decisions may have critical financial, career and reputational consequences. The disciplinary procedures are complex, intense and potentially disruptive to your dental practice. When undergoing the College’s disciplinary process, your rights are always engaged, and the rights embedded in the procedure in turn affect the fairness of the outcome. When defending against an allegation, the applicable rules are multi-sourced and often complex and nuanced, and the facts can often be intensely disputed. Hence, when facing potential BCCOHP discipline, it is highly recommended that you retain early legal representation to minimize unnecessary risks.

If you are facing the BCCOHP’s regulatory scrutiny, do not risk it alone during this testing time. Contact Taylor Janis Workplace Law today to schedule a consultation at one of our BC offices in Vancouver or Kamloops.

References:

• Health Professions Act [RSBC 1996] Ch. 183
• Health Professions and Occupations Act [SBC 2022] Ch. 43
• BILL 36 – 2022 Health Professions and Occupations Act
• Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65 (CanLII), [2019] 4 SCR 653
• Housen v. Nikolaisen, 2002 SCC 33 (CanLII), [2002] 2 SCR 235
• Professional Standards for the Oral Health Team
• Bylaws of the British Columbia College of Oral Health Professionals
• BCCOHP Complaints and Discipline Publication Policy

Resources for Readers:

• BCCOHP public notifications
• BCCOHP complaint process

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