Dentist Licensure Requirements in Connecticut

The ADA lists three accepted clinical examinations for Connecticut: the American Board of Dental Examiners (ADEX) examination as administered by CDCA-WREB-CITA, CRDTS, and SRTA, together with the diagnostics component of the CDCA or CITA clinical test.

It also records a PGY-1 requirement: a residency from a program accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation.

Section 20-107 requires three things of every applicant: a dental degree from a school accredited by the ADA's Commission on Dental Accreditation, satisfactory completion of the written examinations of the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations, and at least one year of a clinically based, CODA-accredited postdoctoral residency.

Graduates of foreign dental schools have a separate pathway under subsection (b) built on CODA-accredited graduate training in Connecticut.

Section 20-108 lets the State Dental Commission accept an approved clinical or practical examination in place of the residency year, and provides that such examinations shall not require the participation of patients.

The Department of Public Health may issue a license without examination to a dentist practicing in another state or territory who holds a current license in good standing issued after examination by a jurisdiction whose standards, apart from the practical examination, are commensurate with Connecticut's, and who has worked continuously as a licensed dentist in an academic or clinical setting for at least one year immediately before applying.

The statute sets an application fee and bars applicants with pending disciplinary action or an unresolved complaint.

A licensed dentist may not designate a practice as limited to an ADA-recognized specialty unless they have completed two years of advanced or postgraduate education in that specialty and have notified the Dental Commission.

Dentists who limited their practice before May 8, 1975 may continue to do so.

Licenses renew annually.

A licensee applying for renewal must earn at least 25 contact hours of continuing education in the preceding 24 months, including at least one contact hour in each of three of the commissioner's ten mandatory topics, infection control in a dental setting, and prescribing controlled substances and pain management.

Up to ten contact hours per period may be earned through volunteer dental practice at a public health facility or temporary dental clinic, at eight volunteer hours per contact hour.

First-time renewals are exempt, records must be kept for three years, and a voided license needs twelve contact hours in the year before reinstatement.