Dental therapy is legal in a specific and still-growing list of states — not nationwide.
The authorizations this guide could confirm in primary sources cover at least thirteen states: eleven by state statute (Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin), Idaho through board rules, and Alaska through the federal tribal DHAT program.
Arizona, Connecticut, Nevada and Washington also limit therapists to listed facilities, and Minnesota and Wisconsin to shortage areas or underserved patients — so the setting matters as much as the state.
How many states allow dental therapists?
There is no single official count of the states that allow dental therapy, because the authorizations reach law through three different doors: state statutes, state board rules, and federal law for tribal programs.
How many "states" you count depends on which doors you open.
Counting only what this guide could confirm against a primary source in October 2026, dental therapists can legally work in at least thirteen states: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin under state law, plus Alaska, where the Indian Health Service's Community Health Aide Program runs the dental health aide therapist (DHAT) program federally.
Wider counts circulate, and they are counted differently rather than wrongly.
The National Partnership for Dental Therapy put the number at about 14 states in 2024.
ADHA's February 2024 brief listed ten states plus tribal lands in Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Washington — but it is out of date on two points: Wisconsin enacted dental therapy in 2023 (2023 Wisconsin Act 87), and Washington moved from tribal-only to statewide FQHC licensing that same year.
This guide's research could not verify New Mexico's or Montana's authorizations against a primary source; both appear on ADHA's list, so treat them as reported but unconfirmed and ask those boards directly.
Inside each state, "allowed" rarely means "allowed anywhere": most authorizations are tied to specific settings, written dentist agreements, or supervised-hours ladders.
This page is only about the where — if you are still deciding what the role itself involves, start with our dental therapist career guide, then come back to the table below.
Verified October 2026 — the rules move, boards decide
State-by-state table: settings, supervision, and licensing
Each row below comes from the statute or board rule that authorizes dental therapy in that state, named so you can pull the source yourself.
The two columns that matter most in practice are where you may practice and how closely a dentist must supervise you — supervision often loosens only after a set number of supervised hours.
| State | Authorized under | Where you can practice | Supervision & limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | Minn. Stat. 150A.105 — state license (authorized 2009, practicing since 2011) | Must primarily practice in settings serving low-income, uninsured and underserved patients, or in a dental health professional shortage area | Written collaborative management agreement with a Minnesota-licensed dentist; a dentist may hold agreements with no more than five dental therapists or advanced dental therapists; no dispensing or administering narcotic drugs |
| Maine | 32 M.R.S. 18377 — a title built on a Maine dental hygienist license | Limited practice settings named in a written practice agreement | General supervision; performs listed procedures including simple cavity preparations and restorations and simple extractions; may be delegated supervision of up to 2 dental hygienists and 3 unlicensed persons per practice setting |
| Vermont | 26 V.S.A. 613–614 — licensed by the Board of Dental Examiners | Under a collaborative practice agreement with a dentist | General supervision of a dentist; the agreement must be reviewed, updated and submitted to the Board annually and whenever it changes |
| Arizona | A.R.S. 32-1276 — licensure requires graduation from a CODA-accredited (or initially accredited) dental therapy program | 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 — mobile dental units included | 1,000 hours of clinical practice under a dentist's direct supervision before entering a written collaborative practice agreement; a dentist may hold no more than four; no narcotics; no independently billing any individual or third-party payor |
| Michigan | MCL 333.16656 (2018 PA 463, effective March 27, 2019) | Listed services under a dentist's supervision; setting limits were not verified for this guide | A therapist may not supervise more than 3 dental assistants and 2 dental hygienists in any one practice setting |
| Connecticut | Conn. Gen. Stat. 20-126y — must be a licensed dental hygienist | Public health facilities only | General supervision under a collaborative agreement; a dentist may hold agreements with no more than two dental therapists at once and is professionally responsible and legally liable for the therapist's authorized services |
| Nevada | NRS 631.3122 — licensed by the State Board of Dental Examiners | Only the settings the statute lists — hospitals, rural health clinics and FQHC-type facilities among them | Written practice agreement with an authorizing dentist; direct supervision until 500, 1,000 or 1,500 clinical hours, depending on prior licensure and hygiene experience |
| Wisconsin | Wis. Stat. 447.06 (2023 Wis. Act 87) — credentialed through the Department of Safety and Professional Services under the Dentistry Examining Board | A dental health shortage area, or settings where at least 50 percent of patients are Medical Assistance, uninsured or other listed groups | General supervision only after at least 2,000 hours under direct or indirect supervision; a dentist may hold collaborative management agreements with no more than 4 dental therapists |
| Oregon | ORS 679.603 (2021 c.530) — licensed by the Board of Dentistry | The Board accepts applicants who complete a dental therapy education program, including CODA-accredited programs in other states; setting limits were not verified for this guide | Not verified here — confirm supervision and setting rules with the Oregon Board of Dentistry |
| Colorado | C.R.S. 12-220-508 (effective Jan 1, 2023) — dental therapy is defined in the dental practice act | Setting limits not confirmed in the sources checked; the statute's allowances are procedural — restorations, temporary and preformed crowns, and specified extractions | Dentist's direct supervision at first; may move to indirect supervision for restorations and extractions after 1,000 hours (the board may waive up to 600 for prior hygiene or therapy practice) under a written articulated plan; a dentist may supervise no more than three full-time-equivalent therapists, plus two more in an FQHC or rural health clinic |
| Washington | RCW 18.265 (2023 c 460) — statewide license | Federally qualified health centers, tribal FQHCs and FQHC look-alikes only | Written practice plan contract with a supervising dentist; may not practice independently and may not prescribe drugs; may supervise no more than three EFDAs, assistants and hygienists in total at one time |
| Idaho | IDAPA 24.31.01 — board rules covering four professions: dentists, dental specialists, dental hygienists and dental therapists | Activities specified by a supervising dentist practicing in the same setting | Written collaborative practice agreement; no sedation; no periodontal scaling or root planing; most extractions barred |
Three patterns run through the table.
First, the dentist relationship is written into every mechanism the states spell out: collaborative management agreements in Minnesota and Wisconsin, a practice agreement in Maine and Nevada, collaborative practice agreements in Arizona and Idaho, collaborative agreements in Vermont and Connecticut, a practice plan contract in Washington, and a written articulated plan in Colorado.
Second, supervision loosens with hours where the state sets a ladder: Arizona requires 1,000 direct-supervision hours before a collaborative practice agreement, Nevada sets its direct-supervision period at 500, 1,000 or 1,500 clinical hours depending on prior licensure and hygiene experience, Wisconsin requires at least 2,000 hours before general supervision, and Colorado moves therapists from direct to indirect supervision after 1,000 hours, with up to 600 waivable for prior practice.
Third, the caps bind employers as much as therapists: a Minnesota collaborating dentist may hold agreements with no more than five dental therapists or advanced dental therapists, Connecticut's no more than two, Arizona's and Wisconsin's no more than four, and a Colorado dentist no more than three full-time-equivalent therapists, plus two more in an FQHC or rural health clinic.
Those limits bound how many therapy positions a single practice can support.
Two rows carry caveats worth repeating.
Oregon's Board of Dentistry licenses dental therapists and accepts graduates of CODA-accredited programs in other states, but this guide did not verify Oregon's practice-setting or supervision detail — check with the Board.
And Idaho authorizes therapists through board rules rather than a statute: ADHA's 2024 brief described Idaho as a tribal-lands state, while the board rules this guide checked cover dental therapists as a licensed profession practicing under written collaborative practice agreements.
That discrepancy is worth resolving with the Idaho Board of Dentistry before you rely on either description.
Tribal-only authorizations
Not every dental therapy track in the United States runs through a state law.
Federal law — section 1616l of Title 25 of the U.S. Code — has the Indian Health Service run the Community Health Aide Program in Alaska, which trains and certifies dental health aide therapists (DHATs) who serve Alaska Native villages.
The same federal statute constrains expansion beyond Alaska: a national rollout of the Community Health Aide Program outside Alaska must exclude dental health aide therapist services, except where a tribe or tribal organization elects otherwise.
That election is one route by which tribal DHAT programs can exist in the Lower 48; states can also write their own rules for tribally certified therapists, as Washington has (below).
ADHA's February 2024 brief listed tribal lands in Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Washington.
Washington's is the easiest of those to pin down, because the state runs both tracks: tribally or federally certified DHATs may work in Indian health program settings within reservation boundaries, for patients eligible for Indian Health Service care, exempt from state dental licensing (RCW 70.350.020) — alongside the statewide FQHC license, not instead of it.
Despite what older maps say, Washington is not a tribal-only state.
Montana's tribal entry, by contrast, could not be verified against a Montana statute or rule in this guide's research; treat it as reported by ADHA and confirm with the state before relying on it.
States with pending bills
Two states moved in the most recent sessions, in opposite directions.
Florida's 2026 dental therapy bill, CS/HB 363, died in the Senate Rules Committee on March 13, 2026 — so Florida is not among the states whose authorizations this guide could confirm, and its most recent bill is dead.
New York's Assembly Bill A5928, with Senate companion S6532, would license dental therapists and advanced dental therapists and add Medicaid reimbursement; it was amended and recommitted to the Assembly Higher Education Committee on May 26, 2026, and had not passed as of this guide's check on October 22, 2026.
This guide also looked for current dental therapy bills in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Texas and could not verify an active bill record for any of the three as of the same check.
That is an absence of confirmation, not a confirmed negative — bill databases are messy and refiled bills change numbers — so check the legislature directly for those states.
Bill status is the fastest-staling fact on this page.
Before you plan anything around a "pending" state, read the bill's own status page on the legislature's site; the entry above is a snapshot from October 22, 2026.
Minnesota dental therapist vs. advanced dental therapist
Minnesota authorized dental therapy licensing in 2009, and its therapists have practiced since 2011.
Its law also defines a second tier above the base license that this guide found in no other confirmed state's sources: the advanced dental therapist (ADT).
What the ADT adds over a dental therapist is defined in Minn.
Stat.
150A.106, and it is narrower than you might expect.
(For how therapy compares to hygiene work overall, see our dental hygienist vs. dental therapist comparison.)
The certification requirements stack on the base license.
An advanced dental therapist is a licensed dental therapist who has completed 2,000 hours of dental therapy clinical practice under direct or indirect supervision, graduated from a master's advanced dental therapy program, and passed a board exam.
The scope difference is concrete.
Under general supervision and a collaborative management agreement, a Minnesota advanced dental therapist may extract periodontally diseased permanent teeth with +3 to +4 mobility — if the collaborating dentist authorizes it in advance.
The statute then draws the line hard: an ADT may not extract a tooth that is unerupted, impacted, fractured, or needs to be sectioned for removal.
The tier is not theoretical.
Seventy percent of dental therapists licensed in 2018 were advanced dental therapists, and 42% of Minnesota dental therapists reported being dually licensed as dental hygienists.
The title matters for the job hunt too — "advanced dental therapist" is the title Minnesota's tier uses, which is where the jobs section below picks up.
Where dental therapist jobs are posted
Because licensing is state-specific, the job search starts with the map, not the board.
Minnesota is the one confirmed state with a published licensee count in this guide's sources: 92 actively licensed dental therapists, advanced dental therapists included, as of December 2018, per the Minnesota Board of Dentistry as reported by MDH — and MDH's oral workforce page published no newer figure as of this guide's October 22, 2026 check.
In the states that restrict therapy to listed facility types — Arizona, Washington, Nevada and Connecticut — the settings in those lists are the only ones that can employ therapists.
In Alaska, DHATs serve Alaska Native villages through the IHS-run Community Health Aide Program.
Minnesota's 2019 workforce survey (58 responses) shows where therapists actually land: about half (53%) reported private practice — solo (25%), small group (16%), large group (12%) — with community and faith-based organizations at 25% and community health centers and FQHCs at 14%.
Private practice works inside the statute: Minnesota limits therapists to settings that primarily serve low-income, uninsured and underserved patients or sit in a shortage area, and the practices that fit that test are the ones that can bring a therapist on.
Nationwide, the official data is thin: BLS has no occupation code for dental therapists, so there is no official job count or wage series for one, and the agency describes therapists only as hygienists with additional training in "a few states."
Job boards inherit that gap, so it pays to search hygiene titles as well as therapy ones.
On DentistryHires, start from the hygiene listings: browse dental hygienist jobs and filter to the states confirmed above.
Search the titles separately — "dental therapist," "advanced dental therapist" (the Minnesota tier), and "dental health aide therapist" (tribal programs).
If your state is not on the list, the adjacent hygiene routes still move: our guide to the most permissive states for hygienists shows where the hygiene scope is broadest, and direct access hygiene states cover treating patients without a dentist present.
And if you are reading as an employer — an FQHC director or practice owner in a confirmed state — the employer-side guide to hiring a dental therapist covers settings, credential checks and the supervision agreements the statutes set out.
This article is general career information, not legal advice. Dental therapy laws change; verify the current rules with the state dental board or the legislature before relying on them.