Dental Assisting Programs in Florida
Florida has 21 CODA-accredited dental assisting programs, across 20 cities from Panama City to Miami.
Each is listed below with its city, address, website, and current accreditation status, pulled directly from the Commission on Dental Accreditation's own program directory.
This list covers only CODA-accredited programs — what Florida itself requires before you can work chairside is a separate question from accreditation, covered on our Florida requirements page.
Verify before you apply
At a glance
In Florida
Programs
21
With a program
Cities
20
Approval without Reporting Requirements
Fully approved
20 of 21
Every CODA-Accredited Program in Florida
Source: CODA program directory, index dated 2026-09-09. Status terms (“Approval without Reporting Requirements,” “Approval with Reporting Requirements,” “Initial Accreditation,” “Discontinued,” etc.) are CODA’s own.
Reading the List
CODA uses a few specific status terms. "Approval (without reporting requirements)" means the program meets or exceeds CODA's basic accreditation standards. "Approval (with reporting requirements)" means CODA found specific deficiencies the program must correct within a set timeframe — it is not a warning to avoid the program, just a compliance step in progress. "Initial Accreditation" applies to a program that hasn't yet graduated its first class, and "Withdrawn" means CODA took final action to end a program's accreditation; students who enrolled before that action can still be considered graduates of an accredited program, but those who enroll afterward cannot.
The last- and next-visit years shown are CODA's own accreditation-visit schedule, not the program's academic calendar.
For admissions, cost, and current status, contact the program directly and check CODA's own directory, which is the definitive, up-to-date source.
Why Accreditation Matters for Your Credential
Whether Florida requires formal dental assistant training at all — and for which duties — is a matter of state law, covered on our Florida dental assistant requirements page rather than anything here.
What CODA accreditation does affect is your national certification path: the DANB Certified Dental Assistant (CDA) credential's General Chairside component requires either graduating a CODA-accredited program or documenting roughly 3,500 hours of on-the-job experience.
If you're still weighing which route to take, see our school vs. on-the-job training comparison, our step-by-step guide to becoming a dental assistant, and our breakdown of what's tested on the DANB CDA exam.
After Graduation in Florida
Once you've completed a program — or an on-the-job path, where the state allows it — the next questions are what the job pays and where the openings are.
Our Florida dental assistant salary guide covers current pay data for the state, broken out against the national figures, so you can see how Florida compares before you negotiate an offer.
From there, our Florida dental assistant job listings show open positions you can apply to directly, wherever in the state you trained.
Where Florida's Programs Are
Florida's 21 programs reach every region of the state rather than clustering in one metro — Central Florida (Orlando, Lakeland, Ocala, Avon Park), the Tampa Bay area (Tampa, which has two programs, and St. Petersburg), South Florida (Miami, Ft.
Lauderdale, Coconut Creek, Loxahatchee Grove, Naples, Cape Coral, Port Charlotte, Bradenton), and North Florida (Jacksonville, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Panama City, Daytona Beach, Cocoa).
Check the table above for the specific address, website, and current status nearest you.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many CODA-accredited dental assisting programs are in Florida?
Florida has 21 CODA-accredited dental assisting programs, in 20 cities across the state — from Panama City in the panhandle to Miami in the south.
Each is listed above with its current CODA accreditation status, address and website.
CODA's own directory is the definitive, up-to-date list — confirm a program's status directly with CODA before applying.
Does an out-of-state CODA-accredited program count in Florida?
Yes.
CODA accreditation is a national standard, not a state one, so a program accredited by CODA counts regardless of which state it's located in.
What varies by state is licensure and any credentialing rules the state itself sets — see our Florida requirements page for that side of the picture.
What does a "Withdrawn" accreditation status mean?
It means CODA took final action to end that program's accreditation because it couldn't demonstrate compliance with accreditation standards within the time period CODA specified.
Students enrolled before the withdrawal can still be considered graduates of an accredited program; students who enroll after it generally cannot, and may be ineligible for certification or licensure exams.
Confirm a program's current status directly with CODA before applying.
Do I have to attend a CODA-accredited program to work as a dental assistant in Florida?
That depends on Florida's own rules for the role, which this page doesn't cover — see our Florida dental assistant requirements page and our school vs. on-the-job training guide for how the state's options compare.
CODA accreditation is most relevant to the DANB CDA certification's eligibility requirements, not to state law generally.
Is every program on this list accredited?
Every program above is shown with the CODA accreditation status CODA had published for it as of 2026-09-09, the date this directory was last pulled from CODA's own program search. "Approval without Reporting Requirements" is CODA's standard fully-accredited standing; other status terms on this page — such as "Approval with Reporting Requirements," "Initial Accreditation," or "Discontinued" — mean something different, and a status can change after that date.
Confirm a program's current status directly with CODA before applying.
More Florida & Dental Assistant Resources
Sourced from the CODA program directory (index dated 2026-09-09). Verified September 2026. Program details change. Confirm accreditation status, admission requirements and costs with the program and with CODA before applying.