Peer Review Resources

State dental associations conduct peer review programs to settle disputes between patients and dentists or third-party payers and dentists. Disputes that may be addressed through peer review involve appropriateness of care, quality of care or whether a fee in question is the dentist's usual fee for a procedure, based on the difficulty or complexity of the dental procedure.

The procedure for a patient to initiate peer review is to contact the component (local) dental society (in this case, the SVDA) and request peer review. The component society conducts the peer review and conveys its decision to the dentist and other party involved in the peer review. Under some circumstances, decisions of the peer review committee at the component level can be appealed to the state dental association by either the dentist or the other involved party.

Peer review is provided free of charge for all members of the Shenandoah Valley Dental Association. This membership benefit is intended to provide an impartial process to resolve complaints before they escalate to lawsuits or the Board of Dentistry. The goal of our organization is to have your back and keep you successful--peer review is just one of the ways we do this. 

Information about the peer review process for patients can be found at the Patient Request for Mediation page on this website. Should a patient ask you how to resolve a complaint with a fellow dentist, please refer them to this page.

Additional information can be found at the ADA's peer review website and in the ADA's document on How The Dental Peer Review System Works. If you have any questions, please contact McKenzie Wells at shenandoahvda@gmail.com or ​540.649.5355.