{"data":{"id":"us-dc/d.c.-code-3-1210.03","jurisdiction":"us-dc","citation":"D.C. Code § 3-1210.03","heading":"Certain representations prohibited.","body":"(a)\nUnless authorized to practice acupuncture under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “acupuncture,” “acupuncturist, L.Ac.,” or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices acupuncture.\n\n(b)\nUnless authorized to practice as an advanced practice registered nurse under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “advanced practice registered nurse”, “A.P.R.N.”, “certified registered nurse anesthetist”, “C.R.N.A.”, “certified nurse midwife”, “C.N.M.”, “clinical nurse specialist”, “C.N.S.”, “nurse practitioner”, “N.P.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices advanced registered nursing.\n\n(c)\nUnless authorized to practice chiropractic under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “chiropractic,” “chiropractic physician,” “chiropractic orthopedist,” “chiropractic neurologist,” chiropractic radiologist,” “chiropractor,” “Doctor of Chiropractic,” “D.C.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices chiropractic.\n\n(d)\nUnless authorized to practice dentistry under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “dentistry,” “dentist,” “D.D.S.”, “D.M.D.”, “endodontist,” “oral surgeon,” “maxillofacial surgeon,” “oral pathologist,” “orthodontist,” “pedodontist,” “periodontist,” “prosthodontist,” “public health dentist,” or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices dentistry.\n\n(e)\nUnless authorized to practice dentistry or dental hygiene under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “dental hygiene,” “dental hygienist,” or similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices dental hygiene.\n\n(f)\nUnless authorized to practice dietetics or nutrition under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “dietitian/nutritionist,” “licensed dietitian,” “licensed nutritionist,” “dietitian,” “nutritionist,” “L.D.N.”, “L.D.”, “L.N.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices dietetics or nutrition.\n\n(g)\nUnless authorized to practice medicine under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “physician,” “surgeon,” “medical doctor,” “doctor of osteopathy,” “M.D.”, “anesthesiologist,” “cardiologist,” “dermatologist,” “endocrinologist,” “gastroenterologist,” “general practitioner,” “gynecologist,” “hematologist,” “internist,” “laryngologist,” “nephrologist,” “neurologist,” “obstetrician,” “oncologist,” “ophthalmologist,” “orthopedic surgeon,” “orthopedist,” “osteopath,” “otologist,” “otolaryngologist,” “otorhinolaryngologist,” “pathologist,” “pediatrician,” “primary care physician,” “proctologist,” “psychiatrist,” “radiologist,” “rheumatologist,” “rhinologist,” “urologist,” or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices medicine.\n\n(h)\nUnless authorized to practice nursing home administration under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms “nursing home administration,” “nursing home administrator,” “N.H.A.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices nursing home administration.\n\n(i)\nUnless authorized to practice occupational therapy under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms “occupational therapy,” “occupational therapist,” “licensed occupational therapist,” “O.T.”, “O.T.R.”, “L.O.T.”, “O.T.R/L.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices occupational therapy.\n\n(j)\nUnless authorized to practice as an occupational therapy assistant under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms “occupational therapy assistant,” “licensed occupational therapy assistant,” “certified occupational therapy assistant,” “O.T.A.”, “L.O.T.A.”, “C.O.T.A.”, “O.T.A.L.”, or” any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices as an occupational assistant.\n\n(k)\nUnless authorized to practice optometry under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms “optometry,” “optometrist,” “Doctor of Optometry,” “contactologist,” “O.D.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices optometry.\n\n(l)\nUnless authorized to practice pharmacy under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms “pharmacy,” “pharmacist,” “druggist,” “registered pharmacist,” “R.Ph.”, “Ph.G.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices pharmacy.\n\n(l-1)\nUnless authorized to practice as a registered pharmacy technician under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “registered pharmacy technician”, “certified pharmacy technician”, “pharmacy technician”, “R.Ph.T.”, “C.Ph.T.”, “Ph.T.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices as a registered pharmacy technician.\n\n(m)\nUnless authorized to practice physical therapy under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms “physical therapy,” “physical therapist,” “physiotherapist,” “physical therapy technician,” “P.T.”, “L.P.T.”, “R.P.T.”, “P.T.T.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices physical therapy.\n\n(m-1)\nUnless authorized to practice as a physical therapist assistant under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “physical therapist assistant”, “licensed physical therapist assistant”, “certified physical therapist assistant”, “P.T.A.”, “L.P.T.A.”, “C.P.T.A.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices as a physical therapist assistant.\n\n(n)\nUnless authorized to practice as a physician assistant under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “physician assistant,” “P.A.”, “surgeon’s assistant,” or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices as a physician assistant.\n\n(o)\nUnless authorized to practice podiatry under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms “podiatry,” “podiatrist,” “podiatric,” “foot specialist,” “foot correctionist,” “foot expert,” “practipedist,” “podologist,” “D.P.M.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices podiatry.\n\n(p)\nUnless authorized to practice practical nursing under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms “practical nurse,” “licensed practical nurse,” “L.P.N.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices practical nursing.\n\n(p-1)\nUnless authorized to practice as an art therapist under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms \"professional art therapist,\" \"graduate art therapist,\" or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices art therapy.\n\n(q)\nUnless authorized to practice psychology under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms \"psychology,\" \"psychologist,\" \"health services psychologist,\" \"general applied psychologist,\" \"school psychologist,\" \"psychology associate,\" or similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices psychology.\n\n(r)\nUnless authorized to practice registered nursing under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms “registered nurse,” “certified nurse,” “graduate nurse,” “trained nurse,” “R.N.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices registered nursing.\n\n(s)\nUnless authorized to practice social work under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms “social worker,” “clinical social worker,” “graduate social worker,” “independent social worker,” “licensed independent social worker,” “L.I.S.W.”, “licensed independent clinical social worker,” “L.I.C.S.W.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices social work.\n\n(t)\nUnless authorized to practice professional counseling pursuant to this chapter, a person shall not use the phrase “licensed professional counselor” or “licensed graduate professional counselor”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices professional counseling. Nothing in this subsection shall restrict the use of the generic terms “counseling” or “counselor”.\n\n(u)\nUnless authorized to practice respiratory care pursuant to this chapter, a person shall not use the phrase “licensed respiratory care practitioner” or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person is a respiratory care practitioner.\n\n(v)\nUnless authorized to practice massage therapy under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms \"massage therapy,\" \"therapeutic massage,\" \"myotherapy,\" \"bodyrub,\" \"licensed massage therapist,\" or \"licensed massage practitioner,\" or similar title or description of services, or the initials \"LMT\" or \"LMP,\" with the intent to represent that the person practices massage therapy.\n\n(w)\nUnless authorized to practice marriage and family therapy under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “marriage and family therapist” or “MFT,” or any similar title or description of services, with the intent to represent that the person practices marriage and family therapy.\n\n(x)\nUnless authorized to practice naturopathic medicine under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms “Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine”, “Naturopathic Physician”, “Licensed Naturopath”, “Naturopathic Doctor”, “Doctor of Naturopathy”, “ND”, or “NMD”, or any similar title or description of services, with the intent to represent that the person practices naturopathic medicine.\n\n(y)\nUnless authorized to practice as an anesthesiologist assistant under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “anesthesiologist assistant,” or “A.A.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices as an anesthesiologist assistant.\n\n(z)\nUnless authorized to practice audiology or speech-language pathology pursuant to this chapter, a person shall not advertise the performance of audiology or speech-language; use a title or description such as “audiological,” “audiologist,” “audiology,” “hearing clinic,” “hearing clinician,” “hearing or aural rehabilitation,” “hearing specialist,” “communication disorders,” “communicologist,” “language pathologist,” “logopedist,” “speech and language clinician,” “speech and language therapist,” “speech clinic,” “speech clinician,” “speech correction,” “speech correctionist,” “speech pathology,” “speech-language pathology,” “speech therapist,” or “speech therapy,” or any other name, style, or description denoting that the person is an audiologist or speech-language pathologist or practicing audiology or speech-language pathology.\n\n(aa)\nUnless authorized to practice as a surgical assistant under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “surgical assistant,” or “S.A.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices as a surgical assistant.\n\n(bb)\nUnless authorized to practice addiction counseling under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “addiction counselor”, “licensed addiction counselor”, “supervised addiction counselor,” “certified addiction counselor I”, “certified addiction counselor II”, “advanced practice addiction counselor”, “C.A.C.I.”, “C.A.C.II.”, “A.P.A.C.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices as an addiction counselor.\n\n(cc)\nUnless authorized to practice as nursing assistive personnel under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “nursing assistant,” “home health aide,” “trained medication employee,” “dialysis technician,” “health aide,” or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices as a member of nursing assistive personnel.\n\n(dd)\nUnless authorized to practice polysomnography under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “polysomnographic technologist”, “registered polysomnographic technologist”, “licensed polysomnographic technologist”, “RPSGT”, “LPSGT”, “polysomnographic technician”, “polysomnographic trainee”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices polysomnography.\n\n(ee)\nUnless authorized to practice as a trauma technologist under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “trauma technologist,” or “trauma tech,” or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices as a trauma technologist.\n\n(ff)\nUnless authorized to practice assisted living administration under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “assisted living administrator”, “assisted living manager”, “A.L.A.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices assisted living administration.\n\n(gg)\nUnless authorized to practice as an athletic trainer under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “athletic trainer”, “licensed athletic trainer”, “A.T.”, “L.A.T.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices as an athletic trainer.\n\n(hh)\nRepealed.\n\n(ii)\nUnless authorized to practice veterinary medicine under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms “doctor of veterinary medicine”, “veterinary doctor”, “veterinarian”, “animal doctor”, “animal surgeon”, “D.V.M.” or “V.M.D.”, or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices veterinary medicine.\n\n(jj)\nRepealed.\n\n(kk)\nUnless authorized to practice certified midwifery under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms \"certified midwife\", \"licensed midwife\", or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices midwifery as a certified midwife.\n\n(ll)\nUnless authorized to practice certified professional midwifery under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms \"certified professional midwife,\" \"licensed midwife,\" or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices midwifery as a certified professional midwife.\n\n(mm)\nUnless authorized to practice recreational therapy under this chapter, a person shall not use the words or terms \"recreational therapy,\" \"recreational therapist,\" \"licensed recreational therapist,\" \"RT,\" \"L.R.T.,\" \"CTRS/L,\" \"certified therapeutic recreation specialist licensed,\" \"registered recreational therapist licensed (RRT/L),\" or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices recreational therapy.\n\n(nn)\nUnless authorized to practice as a doula under this chapter, a person shall not use the word or term \"doula\" or any similar title or description of services with the intent to represent that the person practices as a doula or provides any type of doula services.\n\n(oo)\nUnless authorized to practice medical radiation technology under this chapter, a person shall not use or imply the use of the words or terms \"cardiovascular-interventional technologist,\" \"computed tomography technologist,\"  \"radiographer,\" \"magnetic resonance technologist,\" \"MRI technologist,\"  \"mammography technologist,\" \"mammographer,\" \"medical radiation technologist,\" \"nuclear medicine technologist,\" \"radiologist assistant,\" \"sonographer,\" \"ultrasound technologist,\" or any similar title or description of service with the intent to represent that the person practices as a medical radiation technology practitioner.","path":["Title 3. District of Columbia Boards and Commissions.","Chapter 12. Health Occupations Boards.","Subchapter X. Prohibited Acts; Penalties; Injunctions."],"source_url":"https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/3-1210.03","current_through":"2026-08-20 (D.C. Law 26-175)","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-29T05:44:07Z","sha256":"47f5fa56d5df0214655e606f32577c3e3d9d032577a4af3112c0a16c08aecd0f","source_id":"us-dc","stale":false,"prev":"us-dc/d.c.-code-3-1210.02","next":"us-dc/d.c.-code-3-1210.04"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}