You become a dental therapist by completing a dental therapy program accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) — at least three academic years of postsecondary study — then earning a license from the state where you plan to work and logging whatever supervised clinical hours that state requires.
In Maine and Connecticut, a dental hygiene license is the foundation; Arizona, Washington and Oregon, by contrast, license graduates of CODA-accredited programs.
Each state's law decides, so start with the state where you want to practice.
Two ways in: direct entry vs. the route from dental hygiene
There is no single national entry route.
Each state's statute defines who can become a dental therapist, and the statutes this page checks follow two patterns.
The direct route: a CODA-accredited dental therapy program.
Arizona licensure requires graduating from a dental therapy education program accredited — or holding initial accreditation — by the American Dental Association's Commission on Dental Accreditation (ARS 32-1276.01).
Washington issues a dental therapist license to applicants who complete such a program, with one limited side door: people who finished a substantially equivalent non-accredited program before September 30, 2022 can qualify by adding 400 preceptorship hours (RCW 18.265).
Oregon's Board of Dentistry issues dental therapy licenses to applicants who complete a dental therapy education program, including programs in other states accredited by CODA (ORS 679.603).
The hygiene route: a license built on your RDH.
Maine law defines "dental therapist" — and a separate "provisional dental therapist" title — as a person who holds a Maine dental hygienist license with additional authorization (32 MRSA 18302).
Connecticut writes it the same way: a dental therapist there is a licensed dental hygienist authorized to practice dental therapy under a collaborative agreement (Connecticut General Statutes 20-126y).
Prior coursework counts too.
CODA's standards let programs grant credit for prior coursework, so prior dental education can shorten a program, though the standards name no specific academic degree.
In practice the two routes blend: in Minnesota, 42% of dental therapists were dually licensed as dental hygienists in the Minnesota Department of Health's 2019 workforce survey.
If you already hold a dental hygiene license, hygienist to dental therapist covers that bridge in detail — the CODA education standard, the curriculum areas, and which states license the role.
This page stays on the full path, whichever door you enter through.
Dental therapist education: the CODA baseline
For the program-based route, the education floor is one document: the Commission on Dental Accreditation's Accreditation Standards for Dental Therapy Education Programs, adopted February 6, 2015.
They require at least three academic years of full-time instruction or its equivalent at the postsecondary college level.
The standards set the length of training, not the title on the diploma.
Programs may grant credit for prior coursework, and no specific academic degree is identified — graduates finish with whichever credential their institution confers.
Accreditation status is the gate, not a nice-to-have: Arizona and Washington both write graduation from a CODA-accredited (or initially accredited) program directly into licensure.
How many accredited dental therapy programs are operating is not a figure DentistryHires can verify — CODA maintains the authoritative program directory, and it is the right place to check before you apply anywhere.
For the role this training leads to — what a dental therapist does, who hires them, and how the job differs from hygiene — see our dental therapist career guide.
Licensing, exams, and the supervised-hours ladder
Dental therapy is licensed state by state; our research found no national dental therapy license or exam.
Oregon's Board of Dentistry issues dental therapy licenses directly, Vermont's Board of Dental Examiners licenses therapists who practice under a collaborative practice agreement, Washington's license lives in RCW chapter 18.265, and in Maine the authorization attaches to an existing dental hygienist license.
Examinations are set board by board, and this page will not name a universal dental therapy exam, because no single exam requirement spans the states we can verify.
Minnesota's advanced dental therapist certification, for example, requires passing a board exam on top of its other criteria.
Your state's board publishes the current, authoritative list.
Where the states we can verify do line up is the supervised-hours ladder — each builds one between the initial license and more independent practice:
- Arizona: 1,000 hours of clinical practice under a dentist's direct supervision before you can enter a written collaborative practice agreement, and a dentist may hold no more than four such agreements (ARS 32-1276.04).
- Colorado: restorations and extractions move from direct to indirect supervision after 1,000 hours under direct supervision, and the board may waive up to 600 of those hours for prior dental hygiene or dental therapy practice, under a written articulated plan (CRS 12-220-508).
- Nevada: direct supervision until you reach 500, 1,000 or 1,500 clinical hours, depending on your prior licensure and hygiene experience (NRS 631.3122).
- Wisconsin: at least 2,000 hours under direct or indirect supervision before general supervision is allowed, and a dentist may hold collaborative management agreements with no more than 4 dental therapists (Wisconsin Statutes 447.06).
- Minnesota's advanced tier: advanced dental therapist certification takes a licensed dental therapist with 2,000 hours of practice under direct or indirect supervision, a master's-level advanced dental therapy program, and a passed board exam (Minnesota Statutes 150A.106).
The discounts for prior experience are written into the statutes — Nevada's hour tiers key off your existing license and hygiene history, and Colorado's board can waive up to 600 hours.
If you come from hygiene, ask the board what transfers before you assume the full ladder.
One state's law at a time
The states you can work in
Dental therapy exists where a state law creates it.
Statutes and board rules provide for dental therapists in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, and Alaska's dental health aide therapists work under federal law through the Indian Health Service's Community Health Aide Program.
Our guide to states that allow DTs keeps the current table — legislation is active, so check it before you plan a move.
Settings are the catch.
In Arizona, a dental therapist may practice only in listed settings: federally qualified health centers and look-alikes, community health centers, nonprofit practices serving low-income patients, and private practices treating referred community-health-center patients (ARS 32-1276.04(A)).
Connecticut confines the role to public health facilities under a dentist's general supervision (Connecticut General Statutes 20-126y).
Washington's statewide license reaches only federally qualified health centers, tribal FQHCs and look-alikes — it is not a tribal-only program, though tribal dental health aide therapists continue separately under RCW 70.350.
Nevada limits therapists to listed settings such as hospitals, rural health clinics and FQHC-type facilities under a written practice agreement with an authorizing dentist (NRS 631.3122), Wisconsin requires a dental health shortage area or a setting where at least 50 percent of patients are on Medical Assistance, uninsured or otherwise listed (Wisconsin Statutes 447.06), and Minnesota directs therapists to primarily practice in settings serving low-income, uninsured and underserved patients or in shortage areas (Minnesota Statutes 150A.105).
The practice rules differ too.
Michigan's dental therapy law took effect March 27, 2019, and lets a licensed therapist provide listed services under a dentist's supervision while supervising up to 3 dental assistants and 2 dental hygienists per practice setting (MCL 333.16656).
Vermont's collaborative agreement is reviewed, updated and submitted to the Board annually and whenever it changes (26 VSA 613, 26 VSA 614).
Idaho's board rules authorize therapists under written collaborative practice agreements with a supervising dentist practicing in the same setting — and bar sedation, periodontal scaling and root planing, and most extractions (IDAPA 24.31.01).
In Maine, a dental therapist performs listed procedures — including simple cavity preparations and restorations and simple extractions — in limited practice settings under a written practice agreement and a Maine-licensed dentist's general supervision (32 MRSA 18377).
Minnesota authorized the profession in 2009, and dental therapists began practicing there in 2011.
What you may actually do once licensed is its own state-by-state question — DT scope covers the procedures each state allows, the prohibitions (Arizona, for one, bars its therapists from dispensing or administering narcotic drugs and from independently billing any individual or payor), and the supervision levels behind them.
Getting hired as a dental therapist
Because state law pins the role to specific settings, a dental therapy job search is really a search over employers.
In Washington, that means FQHCs and their look-alikes; in Connecticut, public health facilities; in Arizona, the community-centered settings named above; in Minnesota and Wisconsin, practices serving shortage areas and Medical Assistance or uninsured populations.
Present the credentials the statutes reward.
Minnesota's workforce data shows how far the senior credential already reaches: 70% of the dental therapists licensed there in 2018 were advanced dental therapists.
If you hold both a hygiene and a therapy license, say so prominently: in Minnesota's 2019 workforce survey, 42% of dental therapists were dually licensed as dental hygienists.
Treat the collaborative or practice agreement as part of the hire.
Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Vermont and Wisconsin each route a dental therapist's practice through a written agreement with a dentist, so asking who holds the agreement, what it covers, and how supervision works in the first year is a fair interview question — for you and for the employer checking your hours.
Openings live in the hygiene cluster of dental hiring: start with our dental hygienist job board, and watch community health centers, FQHC look-alikes, hospital-based clinics, rural health clinics and public health programs directly, since those are the employers the statutes name.
This article is general career information, not legal advice. Confirm every requirement with the board of dentistry in the state where you plan to practice.