Dentist Licensure Requirements in Texas

The ADA lists two regional examining boards designated as acceptable for Texas licensure: CDCA-WREB-CITA, effective August 1, 2022, and CRDTS-SRTA, effective January 6, 2025.

Examination results are accepted for seven years from the date of the examination.

Section 256.001 bars practicing dentistry without a board-issued license, and Section 256.002 requires an applicant to be at least 21 and to hold either a degree from a CODA-accredited dental school or a degree from a non-accredited school plus at least two years of ADA-approved specialty training in a CODA-accredited program.

Section 256.003 sets the examination's subject matter (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, diagnosis, treatment planning, ethics, jurisprudence, and the other listed dental subjects) and lets the board contract with independent or regional testing services for the clinical portion.

Administrative Rule §101.1 adds general qualifications — age 21, professional fitness, current basic life support certification, the board's jurisprudence assessment within the year before applying, fingerprinting, a human trafficking prevention course, and an NPDB self-query report.

Rule §101.2 requires accredited-school graduates to hold a DDS or DMD, pass the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations, and pass the live-patient or hands-on simulation clinical exam through a designated regional board (CDCA-WREB-CITA or CRDTS-SRTA), and sets a remediation path for applicants who fail that clinical exam repeatedly: three failed attempts requires an 80-hour clinical remediation course, and four or more requires either repeating the final year of a CODA-accredited graduate program or a 1,000-hour remediation course, with re-examination due within 18 months.

Applicants tested after January 1, 2019 must also pass the exam's periodontics and prosthodontics sections.

Section 256.101 lets the board issue a license to an out-of-state dentist who pays the fee, holds a license in good standing in a state with substantially equivalent requirements, has no final or pending discipline in any jurisdiction, graduated from a CODA-accredited school, passed a board-recognized exam and the board's jurisprudence exam, holds current CPR certification, has practiced continuously for at least the three years immediately preceding application (or five years as a dental educator), and is endorsed by the board of the jurisdiction where they currently practice; subsection (a-1) lets the board waive that continuity requirement if the applicant has a cumulative total of at least three years of practice instead.

If the board has not finished processing a complete application within 180 days, it must issue the license.

Section 256.1013 separately allows a provisional license for an applicant licensed at least two years elsewhere under substantially equivalent requirements who is sponsored by a Texas-licensed dentist, with that sponsorship requirement waivable for hardship.

Rule §101.3's separate credentials pathway instead asks, citing Section 256.101(a-1), for three of the preceding five years of practice (or five years as a CODA-accredited-school educator), background checks drawing on the National Practitioner Data Bank, the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank, and/or the American Association of Dental Boards Clearinghouse for Disciplinary Action, and 12 hours of continuing education completed in the 12 months before applying.

Chapter 119 defines twelve recognized specialty areas: Dental Public Health, Endodontics, Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Pediatric Dentistry, Periodontics, Prosthodontics, Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Oral Medicine, Dental Anesthesiology, and Orofacial Pain.

Rule §108.54 lets a dentist advertise as a specialist only in one of those areas, and only if they are "educationally qualified" (at least two years of CODA-accredited postgraduate training in that specialty) or "board certified" by a recognized specialty board, and specialists should limit their advertised practice to that specialty.

Rule §108.56 lets a dentist advertise other earned credentials so long as the listing does not imply specialization or an academic degree the dentist has not earned, and any credential listing must be visually separate from the dentist's name and designation.

Section 257.001 sets a license term of one or two years as determined by board rule.

Under Section 257.002, a license expired 90 days or less renews at 1.5 times the fee, one expired more than 90 days but less than a year renews at twice the fee, and a license expired a year or more generally cannot be renewed and requires meeting original-license requirements again, though a person who moved to and has practiced continuously in another state for the prior two years may reinstate without reexamination at twice the fee.

Section 257.004 requires CPR documentation at each renewal, with exceptions for physical incapacity or foreign residence without U.S. practice.

Section 257.005(b-1) and Rule §104.1 both require a licensed dentist whose practice includes direct patient care to complete, effective January 1, 2021, at least 2 hours annually and 4 hours per biennial renewal on safe opioid and controlled-substance pain management, and those hours count toward the 16-hour technical/scientific portion of the 24-hour biennial requirement, which also allows up to 8 hours risk-management, up to 8 hours self-study, and a human trafficking prevention course; OSHA and CPR coursework and practice-finance coursework do not count toward the 24 hours, up to 24 excess classroom hours from the prior year may carry forward, and the jurisprudence assessment must be retaken every four years.

Rule §104.6 has the board randomly audit 5% of licensees each period, with 90 days' notice for renewal-based audits.