Dentist Licensure Requirements in California

The ADA lists three ways to satisfy California's initial licensure exam requirement.

Applicants may pass the ADEX examination, administered by CDCA-WREB-CITA, covering the Diagnostic Skills Examination/OSCE, Prosthodontic, Endodontic, Restorative and Periodontal Scaling sections, within five years of applying.

They may instead pass the WREB examination — Comprehensive Treatment Planning, Operative and Endodontics sections — within five years of applying, though WREB is no longer offered as of December 31, 2022, so all required WREB sections had to be completed before that date to remain eligible.

Or applicants may complete a clinically based advanced education in general dentistry program or an advanced education program in general practice residency, at least one year long and accredited by CODA or a board-approved national accrediting body.

Section 1628 sets baseline eligibility to sit for the board's examination: over 18 years of age, payment of the applicable fee, graduation from a dental college approved by the board or by CODA (including a foreign dental school with a reciprocal accreditation agreement), and evidence of financial responsibility or liability insurance for injuries claimed during the examination.

Applicants who hold a foreign dental degree face added documentary requirements, and those whose foreign school was not board-approved at the time of graduation must generally complete two additional academic years at an approved school, subject to grandfathering for applicants who met earlier requirements before dates specified in the statute.

Section 1630 requires the examination itself to be sufficiently thorough to test fitness to practice dentistry, assessing competency in diagnosis, treatment planning, and restorative, endodontic, periodontic and prosthetic dentistry, with both questions and answers in English.

Section 1632 requires each applicant to pass the National Board Dental Examination written exam, a California law-and-ethics exam developed by the board, and either the WREB or ADEX clinical and written examination within five years of applying; Section 1634.1 offers an alternate pathway that substitutes a one-year CODA- or board-approved advanced education or residency program, with a board-approved clinical residency completion certification, for that WREB/ADEX clinical exam, while still requiring the National Board Dental Examination and the law-and-ethics exam.

Section 1635.5 lets the board grant a license without a board examination to an applicant who holds an active, unrestricted dental license from another U.S. state, district or territory that is not subject to pending discipline.

The applicant must show either five years of qualifying clinical, public-health, or academic practice (with credit of up to 2,000 hours for CODA-accredited residency training) or a two-year commitment to practice full time in a qualifying safety-net clinic or to teach or practice full time in an accredited dental education program.

Applicants must also disclose any prior discipline in a state where they hold or held a license, document 50 units of continuing education completed within the two years before applying, and show no failed state, regional or national licensure exam within the preceding five years unless later passed.

The board may issue a temporary, two-year restricted license to applicants using the clinic-service or teaching pathway, converting to an unrestricted license once the term is completed, and Section 1635.7 requires the same ongoing continuing education from these licensees as from any other.

Section 1027 defines terms used in California's special-permit rules for specialty practice: "graduated from a dental college approved by the board" means holding a CODA-accredited (or reciprocally accredited) doctoral or postgraduate dental degree, or a certificate of completion from such a program; "specialty board" means a dental specialty board approved by the American Dental Association; and "affiliated institution" means a setting other than a private dental office, affiliated with the dental college and approved by the board, where a special permit holder may practice fee-for-service.

Section 1027.1 requires a special permit holder who is not a board-certified diplomate to show, as a condition of renewing the permit, that they remain eligible to take a specialty board examination or have become a diplomate of a specialty board; this applies to permits issued on or after April 1, 1994.

Section 1645 requires every licensee to complete continuing education during each two-year period as a condition of license renewal; the board may suspend a license for noncompliance and may require mandatory coursework, capped at 15 hours per renewal period for dentists, in patient care, health and safety, law and ethics, and the risks of Schedule II drug addiction.

Under 16 CCR § 1017, dentists must complete 50 continuing education units per biennial renewal period: two units in California-specific Infection Control, two units in the California Dental Practice Act, up to four units of Basic Life Support, and, for dentists only, two units on the subject in Section 1016(b)(1)(D) — a board-approved course on the responsibilities and requirements of prescribing Schedule II opioids.

Dentists holding a general anesthesia, moderate sedation, or oral conscious sedation permit owe additional permit-specific coursework every two years — an approved advanced cardiac life support course for general anesthesia permit holders, 15 units for moderate sedation, and 7 units for oral conscious sedation.

Correspondence, home-study, video and computer courses are capped at 50% of a licensee's required units, and Section 1017.2 requires proof of the continuing education completed within the preceding two years, plus a full set of fingerprints, to reactivate an inactive license.