Dentist Licensure Requirements in Ohio

The ADA's compilation names three ways to satisfy Ohio's clinical component: the American Board of Dental Examiners (ADEX) examination as administered by CDCA-WREB-CITA; the CRDTS and SRTA regional board examinations, passing all components; or a PGY-1 dental residency from a program accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation, in place of a regional exam.

Rule 4715-5-01.1 itself requires an applicant to pass all components, under a conjunctive scoring method, of one of the regional board examinations it names — the Northeast Regional Board of Dental Examiners (NERB), the Central Regional Dental Testing Service (CRDTS), the Southern Regional Testing Agency (SRTA), or the Western Regional Examining Board (WREB) — or to complete a CODA-accredited residency instead.

Section 4715.10 sets a baseline for every applicant: be at least eighteen, hold a degree from a CODA-accredited dental college (or meet the standards adopted for foreign schools under Section 4715.11), pass Parts I and II of the National Board of Dental Examiners' written exam, pass a written jurisprudence exam administered by the board, and pay the required fee.

On top of that baseline, subsection (D) requires any one of four alternatives: a passing, conjunctively scored regional board exam (the statute names the Central Regional Dental Testing Service, the Northeast Regional Board of Dental Examiners, the Commission on Dental Competency Assessments, the Southern Regional Testing Agency, the Council of Interstate Testing Agencies, or the Western Regional Examining Board); a passing score on an exam the state dental board administers itself; a license in good standing from another state with five years of active practice there (or in the armed forces, U.S. Public Health Service, or Department of Veterans Affairs) immediately before applying; or a CODA-accredited dental residency administered by an accredited dental college or hospital.

A graduate of an unaccredited foreign dental college must separately pass a basic science and laboratory exam and show clinical training sufficient to reasonably assure competency equal to an accredited-college graduate.

Rule 4715-5-01.1 restates these requirements for the license application itself and adds a good-moral-character standard; Rule 4715-5-03 requires a passing score on every component of the chosen regional exam, defaulting to seventy-five percent where the testing agency has not set its own passing score.

Section 4715.12 caps an applicant at two exam sittings before requiring proof of completed refresher coursework.

The ADA lists two statutes under this heading.

As printed, Section 4715.27 addresses reciprocity for a dental hygienist — a graduate of an accredited dental hygiene school who holds a license by examination from a similar board, demonstrates knowledge of Ohio's dental hygiene laws, and passes a dental hygiene exam — and does not itself create a reciprocity path for a dentist.

The pathway that applies to a dentist licensed elsewhere is Ohio's general occupational-licensing statute, Section 4796.03: the state dental board must issue a license to an applicant who holds a substantially similar out-of-state license (or an equivalent uniformed-services or no-license-state certification), has held that license and actively practiced under it for the periods the statute sets, is in good standing everywhere licensed, met minimum education, training or exam requirements to get the out-of-state license, has not had a license or certification revoked for negligence or intentional misconduct, has no disqualifying criminal conviction, and pays the applicable fee.

A licensed dentist is recognized as a specialist in Ohio only if the specialty is one for which the American Dental Association recognizes a certifying board, and the dentist has completed a postdoctoral education program in that specialty that was, at the time of completion, accredited by CODA or held preliminary provisional approval or accreditation-eligible status; dentists who announced a specialty before August 1, 1974 are exempt from that requirement.

A dentist who doesn't meet those standards is a general dentist and may still render specialty services, but the terms 'specialist,' 'specializes,' and named specialty titles (orthodontist, oral and maxillofacial surgeon, oral and maxillofacial radiologist, periodontist, pediatric dentist, prosthodontist, endodontist, oral pathologist, public health dentist) may only be used by dentists meeting the Rule 4715-5-04(B) standards.

The term 'diplomate' is restricted to dentists certified by an ADA-recognized specialty board, or to those holding diplomate status from another bona fide organization who post a specified disclaimer that the organization isn't recognized as a specialty board by the state dental board or the ADA.

As printed, Section 4715.141 sets a continuing-education minimum of twenty hours every two years, but the statute names it specifically for a person licensed to practice as a dental hygienist — the document does not print a dentist-specific hour count.

Rule 4715-8-04 ties renewal certification to Sections 4715.141, 4715.25 and 4715.53 together, but only 4715.141's twenty-hour hygienist figure appears in this document; the dentist-specific hour requirement in Section 4715.25 is referenced, not detailed, here.

What the document does spell out for 'all Ohio licensees' generally: acceptable CE comes from board-approved sponsors in directly interactive, supervised self-instruction, or graded correspondence/online formats; category caps apply to non-clinical practice-management courses (five hours), published papers and presentations (three hours), teaching or research appointments (three hours), and poster sessions (two hours), while documented volunteer clinical service to indigent or underserved populations can cover up to one-third of the requirement.

Records must be kept at least four years, and the board may excuse CE for recent graduates, full-time dental students, military service, documented illness (up to a one-year extension), lost records from an emergency or natural disaster, or other reasons that preclude active practice.