The ADA’s Division of Legal Affairs offers general information on legal and ethical issues affecting dentists. The information in this section is not offered as or a substitute for legal advice. Dentists must secure their own legal counsel for such advice. In addition, to the extent the information contained herein focuses on federal law, dentists must rely on their state or local dental societies, or private counsel, for information about state or local law that may apply. Information about requesting litigation assistance from the American Dental Association can be found at Litigation Support.

Legal and ethical issues can be searched using the Law Article Database . In addition, full text columns on legal and ethical issues published in the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) from the past two years will soon be searchable through JADA, where abstracts are already available.