Are Non-Competes Enforceable for Dentists and Dental Staff in Utah?

For associate dentists, the door has closed on new agreements.

On or after May 6, 2026, a person and a healthcare worker may not enter into a healthcare non-compete agreement in Utah, and an agreement that violates the ban is void — and Utah's healthcare-worker list includes a dentist as defined in Section 58-69-102.

For hygienists and assistants, it is the general rule.

Neither role is on Utah's closed list of 33 healthcare-worker license types, so a covenant with either remains subject to the one-year cap in Utah Code § 34-51-201(1)(a) — no longer than one year after employment ends — and to Utah common law.

What still works crosses every role: patient and staff non-solicits, nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements, a non-compete wrapped into a freely agreed severance, and a covenant tied to the sale of your practice.

How the rest of the country treats dental covenants: see our guide to non-competes for dental staff nationally.

And if you are the associate holding the contract, that is the worker's side of the question — see our guide to dentist non-compete agreements.

The two rules that decide this in Utah are both statute.

Utah Code § 34-51-201(1)(a) has capped post-employment non-competes since May 10, 2016: an employer and an employee may not enter into a non-compete for a period of more than one year from the day the employee is no longer employed, and a longer one is void.

Chapter 341 of the 2026 General Session added the healthcare layer to the same section.

Section 34-51-201(1)(b)–(c) now provides that on or after May 6, 2026, "a person and a healthcare worker may not enter into a healthcare non-compete agreement," and that an agreement entered into in violation is void.

The defined terms sit next door in § 34-51-102 — 'healthcare worker' and 'healthcare non-compete agreement' — and § 34-51-202 carves out severance agreements and sale-of-business covenants.

The federal layer is quiet.

The FTC's 2024 non-compete 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 there is no federal rule banning employee non-competes, including for dental practices.

One timing point the statute leaves open: its text speaks to agreements entered into on or after May 6, 2026.

The text this page's research reviewed does not say how the ban treats agreements signed before that date, or renewals and amendments of them — so do not assume either way, and put existing associate agreements in front of Utah employment counsel.

Dentists are squarely covered.

Utah's healthcare-worker definition, Utah Code § 34-51-102(5), is a closed list of license types, and item twelve (xii) on it is "a dentist as that term is defined in Section" 58-69-102.

A 'healthcare non-compete agreement' is one in which the healthcare worker agrees not to provide services within the scope of their license — for a restricted time or within a specific geographic area — after leaving.

Hygienists and assistants are not on that list of 33 license types, so the 2026 ban does not reach them; their covenants answer to the one-year cap and Utah common law instead.

The practical split: a covenant a new associate signs on or after May 6, 2026 is void, while the one your hygienist signs is a drafting problem.

The definition has one narrow exit.

Utah's healthcare-worker definition excludes a license holder whose employment or contractual agreement does not require or involve practicing under the scope of the individual's license — for example, a dentist hired only as a non-clinical manager.

That describes a genuinely non-clinical job; it is not a label to paste onto a clinical role.

The dentist definition points at the license itself — the same credential covered in our guide to dentist licensure in Utah.

The statute hands you the time answer outright: for covenants under the general rule, one year from the day employment ends is the maximum, and a longer term is void.

The healthcare-ban definition, for its part, is triggered by a restriction on time or on area — either one makes an agreement a 'healthcare non-compete agreement' for a covered worker.

What the statute does not hand you is a formula for the covenants that remain legal.

For hygienists and assistants, Utah's cap works alongside common law: the one-year limit is a ceiling, not a safe harbor, and a covenant can sit inside it and still draw a challenge.

This page's research did not cover the terms or areas Utah courts have accepted for dental staff covenants, so there is no Utah mileage rule or factor list to draft from here.

Draft to what you can defend instead: the shortest term that protects the interest, an area drawn from where your patients actually come from, and a restriction aimed at patient relationships and confidential information rather than at an ordinary departure.

Utah's statute builds the door for these into its own definitions.

"Non-compete agreement" does not include nonsolicitation, nondisclosure or confidentiality agreements — and § 34-51-102(7) defines a nonsolicitation agreement as one not to solicit the person's clients, customers or employees.

Patient and staff non-solicits and NDAs therefore sit outside both the 2026 ban and the one-year cap.

How to build them: see our guide to patient and staff non-solicits.

Confidentiality also has a federal backstop with its own conditions.

Under the federal trade-secret definition, business information — including compilations such as a patient list — is a trade secret only if you took reasonable measures to keep it secret and it has independent economic value from not being generally known.

The reasonable measures are what make the list a trade secret in the first place: locked-down records access, limited copies, signed confidentiality agreements.

A patient list left open on a shared drive is a list anyone can use.

None of this leaves a Utah practice unprotected — it changes which instruments do the work:

• Strip the non-compete from new associate-dentist templates. An agreement entered into on or after May 6, 2026 cannot carry one; a clause that violates the ban is void.
• Keep staff covenants inside one year and draft them narrow. The cap is the ceiling, and common law still applies to hygienist and assistant agreements.
• Lean on the instruments Utah excludes from the ban. Patient and staff non-solicits plus nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements do the retention work a non-compete used to do.
• Where you fund a course or credential, use training repayment agreements instead — a different tool with its own rules.
• Use the statutory carve-outs where they genuinely fit. Section 34-51-202 leaves room for a reasonable severance agreement mutually and freely agreed in good faith at or after termination, and for a non-compete tied to the sale of a business where the individual receives value from the sale — the route when you buy or sell a practice.
• Have Utah employment counsel review existing associate agreements and your final template language. The statute text this page reviewed does not say how pre-May 6, 2026 agreements are treated.