Dentist Licensure Requirements in Michigan

The ADA lists the American Board of Dental Examiners (ADEX) examination as administered by CDCA-WREB-CITA, together with CRDTS and SRTA, as Michigan's accepted clinical examinations.

Applicants by examination must pass all written and clinical parts of the ADEX examination through CDCA-WREB-CITA; applicants by endorsement must pass ADEX or an examination the Board of Dentistry deems substantially equivalent.

The examination must include a computer-based diagnostic skills OSCE, an endodontic portion, a fixed prosthodontic portion, a periodontic/scaling portion (live patient or manikin), and a restorative portion covering both posterior and anterior teeth (live patient or manikin).

A dentist already licensed in another state for at least five years under a state or regional exam requirement may instead show completion of that exam, with CRDTS, SRTA, WREB or a state clinical examination given as acceptable examples.

Section 16611 prohibits practicing dentistry, dental hygiene, or as a dental assistant without a license or other authorization under the article, and reserves deep scaling, root planing and calculus removal to licensed dentists and dental hygienists; most of the section's remaining detail governs delegated dental-hygienist and dental-assistant procedures, such as local anesthesia and nitrous oxide administration, rather than the dentist licensure pathway itself.

Rule 1201 sets the licensure-by-examination path for graduates of CODA-recognized programs: a DDS or DMD from a program meeting the standards of R 338.11301, passing scores on all parts of the NBDE (or the INBDE if it replaces the NBDE) as conducted and scored by the JCNDE, passing scores on all written and clinical parts of the ADEX examination through CDCA-WREB-CITA or another regional testing agency, and proof of current BLS or ACLS certification with a hands-on component earned within the two years before licensure.

Rule 1202 sets a parallel path for graduates of dental programs that do not meet R 338.11301 standards, adding official-transcript and translation requirements and recognizing a 2-year master's or certificate specialty program as an alternate degree route.

Rule 1203 sets the required passing scores: a converted score of at least 75 on each part of the NBDE/INBDE and of the ADEX examination, whose required parts are the diagnostic skills OSCE, an endodontic clinical exam, a fixed prosthodontic clinical exam, a periodontal/scaling clinical exam, and a restorative clinical exam.

Rule 1255 lets a dentist who has never held a Michigan license, is licensed in another state, and is not applying by examination, apply for licensure by endorsement.

The applicant is presumed to meet the code's endorsement standard by showing a qualifying dental degree, passing scores on the NBDE/INBDE, passing scores on the ADEX examination (or board approval of a substantially equivalent regional or state board exam), at least one year licensed in good standing in another state immediately before applying, disclosure of every other health-profession license held, no pending discipline or sanctions, and current BLS or ACLS certification.

An applicant licensed and practicing for at least five years in a state that required a regional or state board exam is deemed to meet the education, national-board and clinical-exam conditions automatically; an applicant from a state without that exam requirement who has practiced at least five years meets only the education and national-board conditions and may petition the board to find their credentials substantially equivalent in place of taking an exam.

Rule 1256 sets a parallel endorsement path for dentists currently licensed in Canada, built on NDEB certification, passage of either the NDEB written exam plus the ADEX clinical exam or the full ADEX examination, and a CDAC- or R 338.11301-accredited dental degree, plus the same disclosure, disciplinary-history and BLS/ACLS conditions.

Michigan issues a health profession specialty field license to dentists with advanced training who demonstrate competency by examination or other evaluative process in prosthodontics, endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, or oral pathology, and, beginning September 1, 2022, in oral medicine, orofacial pain, dental public health, oral and maxillofacial radiology, or dental anesthesiology.

Each specialty rule requires the applicant to already hold a current Michigan dental license and to have graduated from a CODA-approved program in that specialty.

Most specialty rules also require passing that specialty's own certifying-board exam — for example the American Board of Orthodontics or the American Board of Endodontists — though prosthodontics instead requires passing the written portion of the American College of Prosthodontics exam; the oral and maxillofacial surgery rule accepts the examinations and evaluative processes required to complete a CODA-accredited oral and maxillofacial residency in place of a separate exam, and the periodontics rule extends that same acceptance to a CODA-accredited oral and maxillofacial residency program, as printed in the rule.

A specialty license renews concurrently with the dentist license, and suspension or revocation of the dental license automatically causes suspension or revocation of the specialty license.

A dentist who has held a Michigan license for the full three-year period before its expiration must complete at least 60 hours of board-approved continuing education during that three-year cycle to renew; a dental specialist license renewal also requires 60 hours, with at least 20 of them in the specialist's licensed specialty field.

Of those hours, at least 3 must be in pain and symptom management — courses such as behavior management, psychology of pain, pharmacology, behavior modification, stress management, or clinical training qualify — and an applicant may not earn continuing-education credit toward these hours for the implicit-bias training separately required under R 338.7004, or for repeating an identical program or activity already credited in the same renewal period.

All applicants must hold current BLS or ACLS certification with a hands-on component.

Rule 1704a lists the acceptable continuing-education categories and their hour caps, including academic coursework, board-approved programs, up to 30 hours from board-of-medicine/osteopathic-medicine category 1 programs, up to 20 hours per year from CODA-accredited postgraduate clinical training, up to 20 hours per renewal period for passing a specialty board exam, up to 60 hours of reciprocal out-of-state continuing education, publication credit, up to 10 hours of independent reading, and up to 20 hours of qualifying volunteer patient care for a dentist.

Rule 1705 adopts by reference the Academy of General Dentistry's PACE standards, the ADA's CERP recognition standards, the Dental Assisting National Board's recertification requirements, and the American Heart Association's BLS/ACLS standards.