Saskatchewan · College of Dental Surgeons of Saskatchewan

What happens during a CDSS investigation?

An investigation by the College of Dental Surgeons of Saskatchewan is a legal process under The Dental Disciplines Act, 1997, led by the Professional Conduct Committee. The structural point that should shape how you act is this: the committee that investigates is not the committee that would hear a formal complaint — and most matters are resolved at the investigation stage, which is where you have the most influence.

Who investigates you, and under what law

Investigations are carried out by the Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) of CDSS under The Dental Disciplines Act, 1997. The PCC investigates every complaint referred to it by the Registrar — its role is to gather the facts and decide how the matter should be resolved, always in service of the Act’s purpose: protecting the public.

Keep the two committees distinct in your mind. The PCC investigates; the separate Discipline Committee holds hearings. The Act deliberately keeps the detail of the PCC’s investigation out of any written report to the Discipline Committee, so that a hearing panel is not prejudiced by what happened during the investigation.

What triggers an investigation, and the two-year limit

A written complaint to the Registrar is the usual trigger, and it may come from a patient, an employer, another health professional, another College, another dentist, or a third-party payer. There is an important boundary on the College’s reach: under section 25.2(1), a complaint against a former member must reach the PCC within two years of the dentist ceasing to be licensed in Saskatchewan.

That two-year rule has been tested to the highest level. The College’s jurisdiction to investigate and discipline a dentist who has ceased to be licensed was confirmed through the Saskatchewan courts and ultimately the Supreme Court of Canada — so resigning a licence is not a way to make an investigation disappear.

What the investigation involves

Expect the PCC to obtain the dental record, radiographs, treatment plans, consent documentation, billing records and, where the concern is about marketing, your advertising. You will be told the substance of the concern and given the opportunity to respond, and you may be required to appear before the PCC.

This is why the contemporaneous record is decisive: what you wrote at the time carries weight nothing written afterwards can match. And it is why amending a record during an investigation is so damaging — it converts a clinical matter into a dishonesty matter, which is far harder to defend.

How long it takes

There is no fixed statutory deadline, and CDSS is candid that, given the variability of complaints, it cannot predict how long any individual investigation will take. Straightforward matters may resolve in a few months; those involving expert clinical review or multiple issues take longer.

The absence of a hard clock cuts both ways. It can be frustrating, but it also gives you time to prepare a considered response and to begin building a record of insight and remediation while the file is still open — which is far more persuasive than material produced after conditions are proposed.

How the PCC can resolve it

Once its investigation is complete, the PCC exercises its section 29(3) options. It can recommend no further action; refer the matter to mediation where it concerns only you and the complainant and you both agree; require you to appear before the committee; resolve the matter by a Consent to Conditions Agreement; or recommend that the Discipline Committee hear a formal complaint.

The College’s own figures show how often these lesser routes are used: in a representative year, a large share of investigated complaints were closed with no further action, and many others were resolved by a confidential agreement rather than a hearing. A referral to the Discipline Committee is the exception, not the rule.

If it goes to the Discipline Committee

Where a matter is serious, the PCC recommends that the Discipline Committee hear a formal complaint. A Hearing Panel then determines the charges — framed as professional misconduct, professional incompetence, or incapacity — applying the balance of probabilities, the ordinary civil standard: is it more likely than not that the allegation is made out.

The Discipline Committee’s powers on a finding are broad, up to and including conditions, suspension and removal from the register. A decision may be reviewed by the Court of King’s Bench and, from there, the Court of Appeal. Separately, under section 32, your licence can be suspended during the investigation where the public needs protecting before a hearing is held.

What you can do while it runs

You cannot control the pace of the investigation. You can control what you bring to its conclusion. Because the PCC’s resolution tools — the Consent to Conditions Agreement in particular — are built around undertakings and demonstrated change, a dentist who arrives already able to show reflection and remediation gives the committee a route to resolve the matter short of a hearing.

Assembled while the file is open, that record can genuinely inform which of the section 29(3) options the PCC reaches for. Produced only after a formal complaint is recommended, it carries far less weight.

This guide is general information for dentists in Saskatchewan and is not legal advice. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the College of Dental Surgeons of Saskatchewan. Regulatory processes change and every case turns on its own facts — contact your professional liability insurer and a regulatory lawyer about your own matter, and confirm current requirements with CDSS. No course or programme can guarantee the outcome of a regulatory process. Last updated July 14, 2026.