Dental Assistant Requirements in South Dakota: Registration, X-Ray Rules & Allowed Duties

The rules define a "dental assistant" as a person who performs authorized duties without needing to register or be licensed with the board, and separately define a "registered dental assistant" as a person registered to perform expanded functions under a dentist's direct supervision. "Expanded functions" are reversible procedures that require professional proficiency and specific training, performed under direct supervision.

Taking x-rays sits under a third, separate registration: dental radiographer, defined in chapter 20:43:07.

An applicant for RDA registration submits a completed application and $45 fee, a copy of a birth certificate or equivalent documentation, proof of graduating a CODA-accredited program, current DANB Certified Dental Assistant certification, or completion of a board-approved competency program, a certified letter verifying registration status in any other state, and a current board-approved CPR card.

The applicant must be at least eighteen.

If more than five years have passed since completing the CODA program or competency certificate, the applicant must show five years of legal expanded-function experience, and the board may require written documentation of current clinical proficiency.

A dental assistant may perform clinical duties under a dentist's direct or indirect supervision, or a dental hygienist's personal supervision, always subject to the supervising dentist exercising full responsibility.

A specific list of duties may be performed even if the supervising dentist is not in the dental clinic, as long as the dentist has prior knowledge of and has authorized the performance.

A registered dental assistant, by contrast, may perform expanded functions only under a dentist's direct supervision.

The source does not define "direct supervision," "indirect supervision," or "personal supervision" beyond these descriptions.

Subject to the supervising dentist's full responsibility, a dental assistant may perform duties incidental to patient care, including intraoral services and clinical or clinical-related duties, under a dentist's direct or indirect supervision or a hygienist's personal supervision.

A specific list may be performed even without the dentist on-site: making impressions or digital records for casts and appliances, creating or delivering vacuum-formed orthodontic retainers, extraoral or intraoral photographs, cutting long or broken wires, removing loose orthodontic bands, clasps, or brackets, removing and replacing ligature ties and arch wires, replacing lost orthodontic separators, recementing existing provisional restorations, manipulating dental software for designing restorations, infection-control duties, and taking vital signs and updating health history.

Only a person registered as a dental radiographer, or a licensed dentist or dental hygienist, may perform dental radiography, and exposure is allowed only for diagnostic purposes and only when the supervising dentist has authorized it.

To register as a dental radiographer, an applicant submits a completed application and $45 fee, government-issued identification, and, within the prior thirteen months, proof of a dental radiography course through an accredited dental program, passage of DANB's Radiation Health and Safety Examination, completion of a board-approved program, or DANB Certified Dental Assistant certification, plus verification of any prior out-of-state radiographer registration.

A registered dental assistant may not apply X-radiation except as permitted in this chapter.

A plain dental assistant may not place sealants, place nonsurgical retraction materials for gingival displacement, fabricate provisional restorations, use electronic caries-detection instruments, adjust dentures or partials, use rotary or ultrasonic instruments intraorally, or perform anything outside their training or anything a registered dental assistant cannot perform.

A registered dental assistant may not perform irreversible procedures, cut hard or soft tissue, use tissue-altering lasers, place, finish, or adjust final restorations intraorally, perform scaling or periodontal probing beyond placing sealants and coronal polishing, inject medication or administer nitrous oxide or monitor sedation beyond what chapter 20:43:09 permits, apply X-radiation outside chapter 20:43:07, establish a diagnosis or treatment plan, or perform anything outside their training.

A registered dental assistant may not inject medication other than as permitted in section 20:43:09:10.01, may not administer nitrous oxide analgesia other than as permitted in section 20:43:09:06, and may not monitor patients under general anesthesia, deep sedation, or moderate sedation other than as permitted in section 20:43:09:10.

The specific permitted exceptions live in chapter 20:43:09, which is not among the source files reviewed for this page — confirm the exact sedation-monitoring carve-out with the State Board of Dentistry.

A registered dental assistant must complete at least 60 hours of board-approved continuing education every five-year licensure cycle, with category caps: up to 15 hours of nutrition education, 10 hours of practice management, 30 hours of home study, and 15 hours of CPR, plus up to 5 hours per conference (capped at 20 hours per cycle) for attendance at exhibits at a state, regional, or national dental conference; clinical continuing education is unlimited.

A dental radiographer must separately complete at least five hours of board-approved continuing education in dental radiography each five-year cycle.

Registered dental assistants also renew annually by July 1 and must maintain a current CPR card.