--- title: Supreme Court: Dentists Can't Have a Teeth-Whitening Monopoly description: Dentists must step aside for non-dentistry venues that want to offer teeth-whitening services, according to Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday. canonical: https://time.com/3722756/supreme-court-teeth-whitening/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-25T20:49:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:42:56.751Z article:section: Health og:title: Supreme Court: Dentists Can't Have a Teeth-Whitening Monopoly og:description: Dentists must step aside for non-dentistry venues that want to offer teeth-whitening services, according to Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday. og:url: https://time.com/3722756/supreme-court-teeth-whitening/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0c89488d8728450/6987810706f2c184c333429f/gettyimages_595649-002-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 595649-002 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Supreme Court: Dentists Can't Have a Teeth-Whitening Monopoly twitter:description: Dentists must step aside for non-dentistry venues that want to offer teeth-whitening services, according to Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0c89488d8728450/6987810706f2c184c333429f/gettyimages_595649-002-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Supreme Court Says Dentists Can't Decide Who Gets to Whiten Your Teeth by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Feb 25, 2015 8:49 PM UTC  Young woman smiling, close-up Young woman smiling, close-upGetty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Feb 25, 2015 8:49 PM UTC Dentists cannot have a monopoly on teeth whitening services, the Supreme Court [ruled](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/13-534%5F19m2.pdf) on Wednesday. The Supreme Court found that the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners was wrong when it sent “cease and desist” letters to companies that were offering teeth whitening at strip malls and kiosks. The board held that it was regulating the practice, but it was sued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for creating an advantage for its members and blocking competition. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the FTC, agreeing that the board was acting on behalf of private members and not as a state regulatory agency since it was not being actively monitored by the state. North Carolina law does not specify whether teeth whitening is a practice only allowed by dentists. The smaller businesses were offering the procedures for a lower costs than the dentists. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3722756/supreme-court-teeth-whitening/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3722756/supreme-court-teeth-whitening/"},"headline":"Supreme Court Says Dentists Can't Decide Who Gets to Whiten Your Teeth","datePublished":"2015-02-25T20:49:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:42:56.751Z","description":"The Supreme Court has ruled that dentists can't hold a monopoly on teeth-whitening services","url":"https://time.com/3722756/supreme-court-teeth-whitening/","keywords":["Health Care","Supreme Court","North Carolina","dentists","teeth"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0c89488d8728450/6987810706f2c184c333429f/gettyimages_595649-002-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0c89488d8728450/6987810706f2c184c333429f/gettyimages_595649-002-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"595649-002","caption":"595649-002","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health-care/","name":"Health Care"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3722756/supreme-court-teeth-whitening/","name":"Supreme Court Says Dentists Can't Decide Who Gets to Whiten Your Teeth"}}]}] ```