Former Dentist Ordered to Pay for Unlawful Prescribing
The judgment stemmed from controlled-substance prescriptions issued after William C. Gardner, DDS, no longer held the state licensure required for federal prescribing authority.
Edited
Kathryn Wighton
Conexiant July 8, 2026
Objective:
To report on the legal consequences faced by William C. Gardner, DDS, for unlawfully issuing controlled-substance prescriptions.
Approach:
Legal Action: A federal court ordered Gardner to pay $320,000 for unlawfully issuing prescriptions after his dental license was revoked and his state-controlled substances registration expired.
Key Findings:
Gardner issued 94 unauthorized prescriptions between July 17, 2020, and February 1, 2021.
The court found him responsible for 80 unlawful prescriptions.
A civil penalty of $4,000 per violation was imposed under the Controlled Substances Act.
Bio:Kathryn Wighton is an editor with Conexiant, where her byline appears in OB/GYN coverage. Her current editorial work includes reporting on reproductive medicine topics, including uterus transplantation, uterine-factor infertility, assisted reproduction, pregnancy outcomes, and neonatal outcomes.
Her published work in BMJ has focused on COVID-19 vaccination policy and communication for children and adolescents, including vaccination decisions for children under 5 years of age, consent conversations for teenagers, and broader questions around pediatric and adolescent COVID-19 immunization in the United Kingdom.
