Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Section 52A of chapter 112 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 1984 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the first sentence the following sentence:- No such registered dentist, person practicing dentistry, or dental hygenist shall include, or permit, or cause to be included, in any newspaper, radio or television advertisement or in any display sign, personal solicitation or other manner of advertising, any written or spoken words or statements of a character that: (1) contains a statement of opinion as to the quality of dental services; (2) refers to benefits or other attributes of dental procedures or products that involve significant risks but that do not include realistic assessments of the safety and efficacy of such procedures or products; (3) contains statistical data, representations, or other information that is not susceptible to reasonable verification by the public; (4) refers to a fee or fees for dental services and fail to disclose that additional fees may be involved in individual cases, if the possibility of incurring such additional fees may be reasonably foreseen; (5) offers a discount for dental services without disclosing the total fee from which the discount will apply; (6) fails to make a disclosure of the source and authorship of any message published under a dentist's byline; or (7) contain a statement concerning the availability of specialty services to make the public believe that specialty care is rendered in a dental office by a qualified specialist when such is not the case.