Dentist Licensure Requirements in Tennessee

The ADA lists Tennessee's accepted licensure examinations as the American Board of Dental Examiners (ADEX) exam administered by CDCA-WREB-CITA, plus CRDTS and SRTA.

Whichever exam is used, it must include a prosthetic component, a periodontal component, an endodontic component, and a live human patient or non-patient-based anterior and posterior restorative component.

Section 63-5-111 lets the Board of Dentistry conduct its own examinations and separately requires it to recognize the National Board Dental Examinations certificate, accepting the Board's own exam or a regional testing agency's exam; exams may be written, oral, or practical, on a live patient or a non-patient-based model.

Board Rule 0460-02-.01 sets the application process for licensure by exam or by criteria (reciprocity): a CODA-accredited dental degree, evidence of good moral character, proof of U.S. or Canadian citizenship or legal residency, a criminal background check, current CPR training, and the Tennessee Board of Dentistry Ethics and Jurisprudence exam are common to both paths.

An applicant for licensure by exam must also pass the examinations governed by Rule 0460-02-.05, which — aside from limited exceptions for educational, dual-degree and some reciprocity applicants — requires the National Board exam (for graduates after 1972), a clinical exam with prosthetic, periodontal, endodontic and restorative components, and the Ethics and Jurisprudence exam.

Section 63-5-110(b) lets the board issue a license to an applicant licensed in another state, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory who holds a valid license in good standing, has no pending disciplinary charges or investigation, graduated from a CODA-accredited dental school, and demonstrates intent to actively practice or teach in Tennessee, plus one of several experience thresholds: five years of practice or teaching (or a combination of the two), or two years of practice or teaching with a passing score on an examination administered by another state that the board finds substantially equivalent to Tennessee's.

Board Rule 0460-02-.05 requires every applicant under this pathway to still pass the Tennessee Board of Dentistry Ethics and Jurisprudence exam, and the two-year path also requires the passing score noted above.

Subsection (c) separately lets the board issue a limited educational license to an out-of-state dentist, and subsection (d) provides a pathway free of further examination — except as required by § 63-5-113 — for an applicant who holds an out-of-state dental license, has completed graduate training in a recognized dental specialty, and is currently licensed to practice medicine in Tennessee.

Section 63-5-112 bars a dentist from advertising as a specialist or limiting a practice to a branch of dentistry without board certification in a recognized specialty — the statute names branches from dental public health to oral and maxillofacial radiology, plus a catch-all for any other branch later recognized by the American Dental Association and approved by the board.

Section 63-5-113 lets any Tennessee-licensed dentist apply for specialty certification after at least two years of CODA-accredited graduate education in that specialty, and Board Rule 0460-02-.06 sets its own recognized-specialty list — which adds dental anesthesiology, oral medicine and orofacial pain to the statute's branches — along with specialty-specific training lengths (most require two years, oral and maxillofacial surgery requires four) and an oral examination for every specialty applicant.

Rule 0460-02-.10(5) restricts the terms "specialist," "specializing," "specialty," "board certified," and "practice limited to" in advertising to dentists holding the corresponding board certification.

Section 63-5-107 requires every licensed dentist to complete board-approved continuing education, and Rule 0460-01-.05 sets the amount at 40 hours during the two-calendar-year cycle preceding each renewal, including at least 2 hours in chemical dependency education; dentists holding a conscious sedation or deep sedation/general anesthesia permit must complete at least 4 of those 40 hours in anesthesia and sedation topics.

New licensees are exempt from the requirement for their first cycle, and Section 63-5-117 sets an annual renewal fee (with some licenses issued on a 24-month alternative interval).

A dentist reactivating a license retired for less than two years needs half the normal hours; a license retired five years or more requires 24 hours plus a clinical competency evaluation at an approved school.