How to Verify a Dental License in Connecticut Before You Hire

Two bodies matter in Connecticut, and they do different jobs.

The Department of Public Health (DPH) issues the licenses: no one may practice dentistry in Connecticut without a license from DPH (Connecticut General Statutes§ 20-106), and dental hygienists must hold a dental hygiene license issued by DPH as well (Connecticut General Statutesch.

379a).

The State Dental Commission is Connecticut's equivalent of a dental board — nine members appointed by the Governor, six dentists and three public members (Connecticut General Statutes§ 20-103a) — but it handles disciplinary action concerning dentists and dental hygienists, not licensing.

License and permit verification runs through the state's eLicense lookup, not the Commission.

What a candidate did to earn the license — degrees, exams, the rest — is covered in our dentist licensure requirements in Connecticut.

This page is about confirming it before day one.

Connecticut's official lookup is the eLicense License Lookup, which searches licenses, permits, certifications and registrations in one place.

Pick a credential type — the dental options include Dentist, Dental Hygienist, Dental Anesthesia/Conscious Sedation Permit, Dental Conscious Sedation Permit and Provisional Faculty Dentist — then run the search.

Connecticut states that all data in the lookup is maintained by the State, updated instantly, and considered a primary source of verification.

Because the state says that about its own lookup, a dated screenshot of the record is the artifact to keep on file — a printed license handed to you by the candidate doesn't carry that designation.

Check the permit, not just the license, when the associate will sedate patients.

Since Public Act 15-163, a Connecticut dentist needs a DPH permit to use moderate sedation, deep sedation or general anesthesia — issued initially for twelve months and renewable annually — while minimal sedation needs no permit (Connecticut General Statutes§ 20-123b).

The permits sit in eLicense as their own license types, so search them separately: a current dentist license does not answer the sedation question.

Hygienists verify in the same lookup.

Connecticut requires a dental hygiene license issued by DPH (ch. 379a), and eLicense lists Dental Hygienist as its own license type — confirm the record is active before the first patient day.

If a candidate lists credentials beyond the license, verify each one with the organization that issued it rather than assuming it rides along with the hygiene license.

This page's research did not establish which additional hygienist credentials Connecticut tracks in eLicense, so ask what the candidate holds and check each claim at its source.

The requirements side — education, exams, what Connecticut asks a hygienist to have before practicing — is on our dental hygienist requirements in Connecticut page.

Start with the part that surprises people: Connecticut does not license or register dental assistants, and no assistant license type appears in eLicense.

There is no state record to pull — and no Connecticut state radiography license for assistants either.

The statute relies on DANB credentials and CODA-program assessments instead, which changes where you verify.

An "expanded function dental assistant" in Connecticut is a dental assistant who has passed the Dental Assisting National Board's Certified Dental Assistant or Certified Orthodontic Assistant examination plus a CODA-accredited EFDA program, and who must maintain that DANB certification (Connecticut General Statutes§ 20-112a).

Verify the DANB certification on DANB's own Verify Credentials tool, which confirms DANB certifications and national exam certificates — eLicense has nothing to show you for this role.

X-rays are delegated, not licensed.

A Connecticut dentist may delegate the taking of dental x-rays to a dental assistant only if the assistant can demonstrate successful completion of DANB's Radiation Health and Safety exam, or a radiation competency assessment from a CODA-accredited Connecticut program (Connecticut General Statutes§ 20-112a(c)).

Ask for the certificate or the program record.

The full scope picture for the role is on our dental assistant requirements in Connecticut page.

Discipline runs through the State Dental Commission, which handles disciplinary action concerning dentists and dental hygienists.

One gap to plan around: whether eLicense's credential detail displays disciplinary history for dentists and hygienists could not be confirmed while researching this page — so don't treat a routine search result as a clean-discipline record.

When you need a formal document for the file, Connecticut DPH offers written license verifications in addition to the online lookup.

Board discipline also follows the dentist nationally.

State dental boards must report to the National Practitioner Data Bank any action based on professional competence or conduct that revokes, suspends or restricts a dentist's license, censures, reprimands or places the dentist on probation, or accepts a license surrender — and NPDB rules count a state Board of Dentistry among its reporters.

Whether a dental practice can query the NPDB directly is its own question; our NPDB queries guide covers it.

A current license is not the only screen worth running, either.

Pair it with OIG exclusion checks — our guide explains when exclusion screening matters for a dental practice.

And because licenses are issued and verified state by state — our research found no national lookup that covers every state — check an incoming candidate's out-of-state license with the board that issued it too; our how to verify a dental license guide runs through the other states.

The Connecticut requirement cuts both ways: no one may practice dentistry here without a DPH license.

Save the evidence while you are in each system: a dated screenshot or PDF of the eLicense record for dentists and hygienists, the DANB verification plus the x-ray certificate or program record for assistants, and the permit record for anyone who sedates.

Put a recurring reminder in your calendar to re-run the checks.

Connecticut adds a record-keeping duty that lands on the delegating dentist: keep records of each dental assistant's infection control exam or assessment and make them available to the Department of Public Health on request (Connecticut General Statutes§ 20-112a(c)(3)).

File those with the rest of the hire's paperwork so the file is inspection-ready, not something you reconstruct after the fact.

Once the checks clear and you move to the offer, the agreement is the next Connecticut-specific question — our guide to non-competes in Connecticut covers what holds up there.