Dentists Against Teeth Whitening (When Done by Non-Dentists)

Via Instapundit comes this tawdry case
of
licensing as protectionism:

Among the many cosmetic services Americans enjoy is teeth
whitening. Do-it-yourself kits can be purchased for home use, but
some people prefer having the whitening done by beauticians. Who do
you suppose finds that unacceptable?

Smile and say, “dentists.”

Not all dentists, of course, but the North Carolina Board of
Dental Examiners decided to act on behalf of those who do. Since
2003, the Board has been issuing cease and desist orders to beauty
shops or any other business that offered teeth whitening services.
The legal basis for such orders is that the “practice of dentistry”
is restricted to licensed dentists and the Board decided that teeth
whitening falls within that practice. Unless you’re a licensed
dentist, you must stop.

Complaints against the unlicensed teeth whiteners came, of
course, entirely from dentists, not from customers who paid for the
“unauthorized” services. That’s the way it always goes with
regulatory crackdowns on unlicensed competition in any field. The
impetus for the anticompetitive action comes not from angry
consumers who think they were not competently treated, but from
practitioners unhappy that consumers took their business
elsewhere.