HARRY HUGHES, Governor

193

The present provisions of Art. 32 that govern dentistry
provide that, as a requisite to practicing in this State, a
licensee must be both licensed and registered. The statutes
then provide for periodic reregistration, i.e., periodic
registration renewal. On analysis, the Commission to Revise
the Annotated Code has found that these provisions serve no
substantive purpose that could not be accomplished more
directly by the pattern followed for the licensing of most
other health occupations. That pattern simply requires that
the practitioner be licensed and periodically renew the
license. It is superfluous to specify an auxiliary
procedure under which the practitioner also must be
registered to practice and which then substitutes a periodic
reregistration requirement for the periodic license renewal
requirement.

It is a precept of the Commission to revise the law in
a clear, straightforward manner, and, once something is
said, to say it the same way each time it subsequently is
said. To obtain clarity and consistency and to avoid the
superfluous and misleading aspects of the present
references, throughout this title all references to the
requirement that a licensee must be registered are deleted
and references to periodic license renewal are substituted
for all references to periodic reregistration. These are
changes in form only; no change in substance is intended.

Present Art. 32, § 3A, which provides that the Board
may not discriminate on the basis of race, religious creed,
color, sex, or national origin, is deleted as unnecessary in
light of provisions in the U.S. Constitution and the
Maryland Declaration of Rights. In addition, it is deleted
to avoid creating the false impression, from the absence of
a corresponding provision, that any other board or
commission addressed in this article may discriminate
against any person on any of the enumerated bases.

Present Art. 32, § 10, which provides that transcripts
and certificates shall be evidence of the acts and
proceedings of the Board in any court of this State, is
deleted as unnecessary in light of CJ §§ 10-102 and 10-204,
which provide generally for use of records in courts.

Present Art. 32, § ll(n), which provides that Art. 32,
§§ 11 and 12 are not retroactive, is deleted as unnecessary.
In the absence of language expressly giving a statute that
affects vested rights retroactive effect, the statute will
not be applied retrospectively to affect vested rights. See
Cooper v. Wicomico County, 278 Md. 596 (1976).

Present Art. 32, § 19, which deals with compensation
for services performed for an insured under a health and
accident policy, is deleted as needlessly repetitive of Art.
48A, § 490A-1 of the Code.

Present Art. 32, § 22 is deleted as unnecessary. The
first sentence of this section, which states the duty of the