Dental Assisting Programs in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico has 1 CODA-accredited dental assisting program, in 1 city: San Juan.
It's 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 Puerto Rico itself requires before you can work chairside is a separate question from accreditation, covered on our dental assistant requirements guide.
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At a glance
In Puerto Rico
Programs
1
With a program
Cities
1
Approval without Reporting Requirements
Fully approved
1 of 1
Every CODA-Accredited Program in Puerto Rico
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 — the status the Puerto Rico program listed above currently holds. "Approval (with reporting requirements)" means CODA found specific deficiencies the program must correct within a set timeframe; it's 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.
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 Puerto Rico requires formal dental assistant training at all is a matter of local law — see our dental assistant requirements guide 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 Puerto Rico
Once you've completed a program — or an on-the-job path, where local rules allow it — the next questions are what the job pays and where the openings are.
Our national dental assistant salary guide covers current pay data and percentile breakdowns, since Puerto Rico doesn't yet have a dedicated salary page.
From there, browse current dental assistant openings to see what practices are actually hiring for right now.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many CODA-accredited dental assisting programs are in Puerto Rico?
Puerto Rico has 1 CODA-accredited dental assisting program, at the University of Puerto Rico School of Health Professions in San Juan.
It's listed above with its current CODA accreditation status, address and website.
CODA's own directory is the definitive, up-to-date list — confirm the program's status directly with CODA before applying.
Does an out-of-Puerto-Rico CODA-accredited program count for working in Puerto Rico?
Yes.
CODA accreditation is a national standard, not a jurisdiction-specific one, so a program accredited by CODA counts regardless of which state or territory it's located in.
What varies by jurisdiction is licensure and any credentialing rules it sets — see our dental assistant requirements guide for that side of the picture.
What does "Approval without Reporting Requirements" mean?
It's CODA's classification for a program that meets or exceeds its basic accreditation standards at the time of its last review, with no outstanding deficiencies to report.
The Puerto Rico dental assisting program listed above currently carries this status.
Confirm the program's current status directly with CODA before applying, since status can change between accreditation visits.
Do I have to attend the Puerto Rico program to work as a dental assistant in Puerto Rico?
That depends on Puerto Rico's own rules for the role, which this page doesn't cover — see our dental assistant requirements guide and our school vs. on-the-job training guide for how the options compare.
CODA accreditation is most relevant to the DANB CDA certification's eligibility requirements, not to local 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 Puerto Rico & 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.