How to Verify a Dental License in Delaware Before You Hire
Run DELPROS License Look-Up before you hire — and check the permits and certificates the license itself doesn't cover.
In Delaware, you verify a dentist's or hygienist's license on DELPROS License Look-Up, the Division of Professional Regulation's free online search — the state treats it as primary source verification, fed in real time from its licensure database.
Dental assistants are different: the dental board does not license them, and the x-ray certificate an assistant needs comes from the Authority on Radiation Protection, not the board.
Here is what to check for each role, what the lookup shows, and how to document it.
Rules vary by state and change
This guide explains federal rules and the state rules it names, as of the date above.
Employment law and dental-practice rules differ by state and are revised often, so confirm current requirements with your state dental board, labor agency or employment counsel before you act on them.
It is general information, not legal advice.
Who licenses dental professionals in Delaware
Dentists and dental hygienists are licensed by the Delaware Board of Dentistry and Dental Hygiene, within the Division of Professional Regulation (Title 24, Chapter 11 of the Delaware Code).
The Board issues licenses to dentists, dentist academics, dental hygienists and dental residents — so a resident or academic hire is a board-license check too, not just a CV review.
Dentist and hygienist discipline shows on the DELPROS license record, and the Board issues anesthesia permits to dentists separately from licenses.
What the Board does not hold is every credential on your schedule: Delaware certifies dental x-ray operators through a different state agency, which changes how you verify assistants.
How a candidate earns the license is their side of the hire — our guide to dentist licensure requirements in Delaware covers it.
This page is yours: running the verification before the offer.
Looking up a dentist's license
Delaware's official license lookup is DELPROS License Look-Up.
Select INDIVIDUAL or FACILITY under the search option, then search the dentist's name.
The state's own wording: DELPROS online verifications are considered primary source verifications, are free of charge, and contain real-time data from the licensure database — so what you see reflects the board's records when you run it.
Read the License/Application/Approval Number field: if the number begins with 'L2K' or 'APP', it is not yet a fully approved and issued license — you may be looking at an application rather than the credential.
Wait for an issued license before you treat the check as done.
If the associate will administer anesthesia or sedation, the license is not the only board record in play: the Board issues three types of anesthesia permits to dentists and dentist academics, listed on its site as Restricted Permit I, Restricted Permit II and Unrestricted Permit.
Match the permit to the duties in the job description, and confirm it with the Board if the record leaves it unclear.
The national process, and how other boards' lookups differ, is in our guide to how to verify a dental license.
Hygienist licenses and permits
Hygienists are licensed by the same Board of Dentistry and Dental Hygiene, so the same DELPROS individual search verifies them — no separate tool.
One recent change matters for hiring: effective March 1, 2026, under Senate Bill 131, the Board adopted regulations establishing the requirements and standards to allow dental hygienists to administer local anesthesia.
If the role includes local anesthesia, the base hygienist license is not the whole answer — confirm the individual's authorization.
Our research could not confirm whether DELPROS displays that authorization, so ask the candidate for their documentation and confirm with the Board.
What Delaware requires to become a hygienist, and which duties the license covers, is on our dental hygienist requirements in Delaware page.
Dental assistant registrations, certificates and permits
Delaware dental assistants are not licensed by the dental board — so there is no assistant license to look up in DELPROS.
What Delaware does require is a certificate for anyone exposing x-rays, and it comes from a different agency: under Delaware regulation 4466 (Title 16 of the Delaware Administrative Code), radiation technologists and technicians are subject to certification by the Authority on Radiation Protection, in the Office of Radiation Control of the Division of Public Health — not the dental board.
The regulation's legal titles for those certificate holders include 'certified dental assistant' and 'dental radiation technician'.
A certified dental assistant means an individual holding a national credential issued by the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB) — and DANB's own Verify Credentials tool confirms whether a person holds DANB national credentials, including the CDA.
Whether the Authority's Delaware certificates themselves are searchable online was not confirmed in our research, so verify the document instead.
The regulation gives you a practical check once the person is on your schedule: certificate holders must display the official certificate, or a verified copy, in public view at each place of regular employment.
Make the display part of your onboarding walk-through, and keep a copy in the credential file.
The full list of what Delaware assistants may do, and the paths into assisting, is on our dental assistant requirements in Delaware page.
Discipline history and other states
DELPROS puts discipline on the license record itself.
To view any disciplinary history, click 'Yes' under the Discipline column — and the disciplinary documents can be downloaded, so save them into the candidate's file.
Board discipline also has a federal shadow: when a state dental board acts on a dentist's professional competence or conduct — revoking, suspending or restricting a license, censuring, reprimanding, placing the dentist on probation, or accepting a license surrender — it must report the action to the National Practitioner Data Bank (45 CFR 60.8), whose regulations count a state Board of Dentistry among its reporters (45 CFR 60.3).
Whether your practice can query the NPDB directly is its own question; our guide to NPDB queries covers direct queries and the candidate's self-query.
For a candidate who has practiced outside Delaware, DELPROS covers Delaware credentials only.
Licenses are verified state by state — our research found no national dental license lookup — so run the other state's board lookup the same way.
Documenting the check
A verification is only worth what you can prove.
For each credential, save the date, the lookup you used, the license or certificate number, and the discipline answer.
Because DELPROS draws real-time data from the licensure database, the copy you save is a snapshot of the board's records at that moment.
If you want the state's own document instead of your own screenshot, Delaware charges $35 for an official written license verification, while the online look-ups are free (as of our October 7, 2026 check).
Because you are not the licensee, the request goes through DPR's License Verification Request Form — not a DELPROS service request.
It is worth the $35 where you want the state's own paper on record, such as for a sedation hire.
Fold the license file into the rest of the screen — references, your other background checks, and the federal exclusion list where it applies; our guide to OIG exclusion checks covers when and how.
The same file is where the hire's paperwork starts: if you want protections that survive an associate's departure, check what Delaware allows before you draft — our guide to non-competes in Delaware covers how the state treats them.
Before the first patient: the Delaware check
- Run DELPROS License Look-Up (INDIVIDUAL search) for each dentist and hygienist candidate, and save the result with the date you ran it.
- Check the License/Application/Approval Number — a number beginning 'L2K' or 'APP' is not yet a fully approved and issued license.
- Click 'Yes' under the Discipline column for each record, and download any documents you find.
- For a sedation or anesthesia hire, confirm which of the Board's three anesthesia permits the dentist holds.
- For a hygienist working under the March 1, 2026 local-anesthesia regulations, confirm the individual's authorization with the Board.
- For an assistant who takes x-rays, see the Authority on Radiation Protection certificate itself (CDA or dental radiation technician), and check a CDA's DANB credential on DANB's tool.
- For a candidate licensed in another state, run that state's board lookup too.
Questions employers ask
Is the Delaware license lookup free?
The online lookup is: Delaware says DELPROS online verifications are considered primary source verifications and are free of charge, with real-time data from its licensure database.
The paid option is the official written verification, which costs $35 (as of our October 7, 2026 check), and because you are not the licensee you request it on DPR's License Verification Request Form rather than through DELPROS.
For a routine hire the free online check plus a saved copy is enough; use the written verification where you want an official document on file.
Do dental assistants need a license in Delaware?
Not from the dental board — Delaware dental assistants are not licensed by the Board of Dentistry and Dental Hygiene.
What an assistant who takes x-rays needs is certification from the Authority on Radiation Protection, as a certified dental assistant (a national DANB credential) or a dental radiation technician.
Whether those certificates are searchable online was not confirmed in our research, so ask to see the certificate itself; the regulation requires holders to display it at each place of regular employment.
What does an 'L2K' or 'APP' number mean in DELPROS?
That the record is not yet a fully approved and issued license.
DELPROS lists a License/Application/Approval Number for each record, and a number beginning with 'L2K' or 'APP' is not yet a fully approved and issued license.
If a candidate's Delaware result shows one of those prefixes, wait for an issued license number before you treat the verification as done.
Can Delaware dental hygienists administer local anesthesia?
Yes, under new rules: effective March 1, 2026, regulations adopted under Senate Bill 131 establish the requirements and standards that allow Delaware dental hygienists to administer local anesthesia.
For hiring, that makes the base hygienist license only part of the check — confirm the individual's authorization.
Whether DELPROS displays that authorization was not confirmed in our research, so ask the candidate for their documentation and confirm with the Board.
Is there a national dental license lookup?
Not one we could source.
Licenses are issued and verified state by state, so a Delaware hire is checked on DELPROS, and any out-of-state license on that state's board's own lookup.
The National Practitioner Data Bank is not a license lookup — it is a reporting data bank that state dental boards report certain discipline to, and whether a practice can query it directly depends on eligibility; for a practice that cannot query directly, the practical route is the candidate's self-query.
Sources
- Delaware Board of Dentistry and Dental Hygiene — website (retrieved October 7, 2026)
- DELPROS License Look-Up (Delaware Division of Professional Regulation) (retrieved October 7, 2026)
- Delaware DPR — License Verification Request instructions (retrieved October 7, 2026)
- 16 DE Admin. Code 4466 (Radiation Technologists/Technicians) (retrieved October 7, 2026)
- DANB — Verify Credentials (retrieved October 7, 2026)
- eCFR — 45 CFR 60.8 (NPDB reporting by boards) (retrieved October 7, 2026)
- eCFR — 45 CFR 60.3 (NPDB definitions) (retrieved October 6, 2026)
More hiring resources
Hiring a dentist, hygienist or assistant in Delaware?
Post the role on DentistryHires, then run the Delaware checks above on every finalist before their first day.