Are Non-Competes Enforceable for Dentists and Dental Staff in Arkansas?
Arkansas's non-compete statute covers unlicensed staff, while licensed dentists and hygienists fall under common law — here is how each regime works and what still protects your practice.
Sometimes — Arkansas law splits your staff in two.
A 2015 statute governs non-competes signed by unlicensed employees such as dental assistants and front-office staff, and it reads in the practice's favor.
Licensed dentists and dental hygienists sit outside that statute entirely, so their covenants rest on Arkansas common law instead.
The state's 2025 physician non-compete ban does not reach dentists.
Here is how each regime works and what your practice can still protect.
Rules vary by state and change
This guide explains federal rules and the state rules it names, as of the date above.
Employment law and dental-practice rules differ by state and are revised often, so confirm current requirements with your state dental board, labor agency or employment counsel before you act on them.
It is general information, not legal advice.
The short answer for Arkansas
Arkansas does have an employee non-compete statute — enacted by Act 921 of 2015 and codified at Arkansas Code § 4-75-101, as amended by Act 232 of 2025 — but it does not reach everyone on your payroll.
The statute expressly does not apply to a person holding a professional license under Arkansas Code Title 17, Subtitle 3.
That carve-out covers licensed clinicians.
Arkansas regulates both the practice of dentistry and the practice of dental hygiene in chapter 82 of Title 17, which sits inside Subtitle 3, so licensed associate dentists and licensed hygienists fall outside the statute.
Their non-competes are governed by Arkansas common law — not by the statute's two-year presumption, its reformation rule or its continued-employment rule.
Unlicensed dental assistants and front-office staff, by contrast, are statute-covered employees.
So the answer depends on the chair.
For unlicensed staff, a statute backs you up.
For licensed clinicians, you are arguing case law, and the clauses that sit outside the non-compete statute altogether — employee non-solicits and confidentiality terms — carry more of the weight.
For how the other states treat dental covenants, see our guide to non-competes for dental staff nationally; for the worker's side of the decision, our dentist non-compete guide covers it.
The governing statute or case law
The statute.
Arkansas's employee non-compete law was enacted by Act 921 of 2015 and is codified at Arkansas Code § 4-75-101, as amended by Act 232 of 2025.
For the employees it covers, a non-compete ancillary to employment is enforceable if the employer has a protectable business interest and the covenant is limited in time and scope to no more than necessary to defend that interest.
The carve-out.
The statute does not apply to a person holding a professional license under Arkansas Code Title 17, Subtitle 3.
Subtitle 3 is titled "Medical Professions" and runs from chapter 80 to chapter 107.
Dentistry and dental hygiene are both regulated in chapter 82 — the same section, Arkansas Code § 17-82-102, defines practicing dentistry and practicing dental hygiene — so both licenses sit inside the excluded subtitle.
The consequence.
For a licensed associate dentist or dental hygienist, the statute simply does not govern: its two-year presumption, reformation rule and continued-employment consideration rule do not apply, and Arkansas common law takes over.
One limit on this page — our research verified the statute and its carve-out, not the common-law test Arkansas courts apply to licensed professionals, so treat any covenant for a licensed clinician as a question for Arkansas employment counsel.
Dentist- and healthcare-specific rules
Arkansas added a healthcare-specific rule in 2025 — just not one for dentists.
Act 232 of 2025 (SB 139, approved March 4, 2025) added a subsection making a non-compete that restricts a physician's right to practice within the physician's scope of practice void.
"Physician," in that subsection, means a person licensed to practice medicine under the Arkansas Medical Practices Act or authorized to practice osteopathy.
Dentists are not in the definition, and neither are hygienists, so the 2025 ban does not void dental covenants.
If you have seen coverage of Arkansas banning healthcare non-competes, that law is about physicians.
The rule that actually shapes dental covenants is the older one, and it cuts the other way: rather than banning covenants, the statute excludes licensed dental professionals from its terms entirely and leaves them to common law.
That makes licensure — specifically whether the person holds a Title 17, Subtitle 3 license — the fact that decides which regime applies to each hire.
Our guide to dentist licensure in Arkansas covers what a license requires; sort every member of your team the same way before you pick a template.
One open point: our research confirmed the carve-out for people holding a Title 17, Subtitle 3 license, but did not confirm whether any Arkansas dental-assistant credential counts as such a license that would exclude that assistant too.
If an assistant on your roster holds a state credential, treat their status as a question for counsel rather than assuming the statute covers them.
What courts require (time, area, legitimate business interest)
For statute-covered staff — your unlicensed assistants and front-office team — the statute sets the test: the covenant must protect a protectable business interest and be limited in time and scope to no more than necessary to defend it.
On top of that baseline, three features of the statute work in the practice's favor:
- Time. A post-termination restriction of two years is presumptively reasonable as to length, unless the facts clearly show otherwise.
- Repair, not death. If a covenant is overbroad, the court must reform it to the extent necessary and enforce it as reformed — overbreadth is corrected, not fatal.
- Consideration. An employee's continued employment is sufficient consideration, so you can ask a current assistant or coordinator to sign without adding a raise or bonus to the deal.
On geography, be careful what you borrow.
The verified statute gives a time presumption and a "no more than necessary" scope limit; this research did not verify an Arkansas mileage rule comparable to other states' radius caps.
Treat any radius in a template as something you have to justify, not something the statute presumes — a drafting decision to make with counsel.
None of those three features governs a licensed dentist or hygienist.
Outside the statute, the two-year presumption, mandatory reformation and continued-employment rule are off the table for an associate's or hygienist's covenant, and enforceability rests on common law.
The practical read: statute-covered covenants come with written guardrails, while a clinician covenant rests on a common-law test this page cannot state for you — which is why the alternatives below carry the weight.
Non-solicitation and confidentiality clauses
Arkansas's non-compete statute does not govern everything you might put in an agreement.
It expressly does not cover agreements not to solicit, recruit or hire employees, and it does not cover confidentiality agreements or non-disclosure agreements.
Those clauses stay under existing common-law standards — not voided by the statute, but not boosted by its pro-enforcement features either.
For licensed dentists and hygienists, that matters as much as the non-compete question.
An employee non-solicit is drafted to keep a departing associate from recruiting your hygienists; a confidentiality clause is drafted to keep fee schedules, lab prescriptions and practice-management data from leaving with the clinician.
Those are the clauses the non-compete statute leaves alone — and the ones to draft with the most care.
Two drafting notes.
First, the exclusion we verified names employee non-solicits; it does not clearly answer where patient non-solicits sit under the statute, so treat that as an open point for your attorney rather than assuming either way.
Second, these clauses stand or fall on their own drafting — our guide to patient and staff non-solicits covers what to include.
What Arkansas dental practices should do instead or in addition
Start by sorting the roster.
Everyone holding a Title 17, Subtitle 3 license — dentists, dental hygienists — gets common-law treatment; unlicensed assistants and front-office staff get the statute.
One agreement rarely fits both, so template per role rather than per practice.
For statute-covered staff, the statute is your drafting brief: name the protectable business interest, keep the term at two years or less, and cut the scope to no more than necessary.
For licensed clinicians, build the agreement around what sits outside the non-compete statute — employee non-solicits, confidentiality terms, and a notice period that gives you time to introduce a successor before patients hear about a departure secondhand.
Two more tools have their own lanes.
Covenants ancillary to the sale and purchase of a business are outside the employment statute entirely — common law governs them — so if you are selling your practice or buying one, the sale covenant is negotiated under different rules than the employment one.
And where your real exposure is training you paid for, training repayment agreements are a separate tool with their own limits; our guide covers how to structure one.
Close with counsel.
Arkansas splits its own law between a statute and common law depending on who signs, and this page verified the statutory framework but not the common-law test for licensed professionals.
An Arkansas employment attorney should draft or review any covenant before an employee signs it — that is cheaper than finding out which regime applies in a dispute.
Before you put a covenant in front of an Arkansas employee
- Sort your roster by license status: Title 17, Subtitle 3 license holders (dentists, hygienists) sit outside the statute; unlicensed assistants and office staff are covered by it.
- For statute-covered staff, name the protectable business interest and keep the term at two years or less.
- Keep scope no broader than necessary to defend the interest you named — treat any mileage figure as something to justify.
- Draft employee non-solicit and confidentiality clauses that stand on their own.
- Use a separate covenant for any sale or purchase of a practice.
- Have an Arkansas employment attorney review before anyone signs.
Questions employers ask
Does Arkansas's 2025 physician non-compete ban apply to dentists?
No. Act 232 of 2025 voids a non-compete that restricts a physician's right to practice within their scope of practice, but it defines "physician" as a person licensed to practice medicine under the Arkansas Medical Practices Act or authorized to practice osteopathy.
Dentists are not in the definition, and licensed dentists and hygienists sit outside the non-compete statute entirely, under common law.
How long can a non-compete last for a dental assistant in Arkansas?
For employees the statute covers, such as an unlicensed assistant, a two-year post-termination restriction is presumptively reasonable unless the facts clearly show otherwise, and a court must reform an overbroad covenant and enforce it as reformed.
Whether an assistant holding a state credential is statute-covered was not settled in our research — confirm with counsel.
Can I make my dental hygienist sign a non-compete in Arkansas?
You can ask, but enforceability does not run through the statute.
Licensed Arkansas dental hygienists hold licenses under Title 17, Subtitle 3, which the non-compete statute excludes, so their covenants rest on Arkansas common law.
Employee non-solicits and confidentiality clauses sit outside the statute entirely; draft them on their own merits.
What happens if my Arkansas non-compete is too broad?
For statute-covered employees, the court must reform the covenant to the extent necessary and enforce it as reformed, so overbreadth is corrected rather than fatal.
For licensed dentists and hygienists, that statutory reformation rule does not apply and the outcome depends on common law — one more reason to have counsel draft the agreement.
Is there a federal non-compete ban my Arkansas practice has to follow?
No. The FTC's 2024 Non-Compete Clause Rule was set aside in court and never took effect, and in a final rule published February 12, 2026 the FTC removed it from the Code of Federal Regulations — so as of this guide's October 2026 check there is no federal rule banning employee non-competes.
The FTC says it can still challenge unjustified, overbroad or anticompetitive covenants case by case.
Sources
- Arkansas Act 232 of 2025 (SB 139) — amendments to Ark. Code § 4-75-101 (retrieved October 6, 2026)
- Arkansas Act 921 of 2015 — covenant not to compete (Ark. Code § 4-75-101) (retrieved October 6, 2026)
- Arkansas Code Title 17, Subtitle 3 — Medical Professions (FindLaw mirror) (retrieved October 7, 2026)
- Arkansas Code § 17-82-102 — definitions of dentistry and dental hygiene (FindLaw mirror) (retrieved October 7, 2026)
- Federal Register 2026-02866 — FTC removes the Non-Compete Rule from the CFR (retrieved October 6, 2026)
- FTC press release — chairman's non-compete warning letters to healthcare employers and staffing firms (retrieved October 6, 2026)
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